L' LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




jh '^jju^j^ tL<UZ* 



NOBILITY AT THE CROSS. 



Life of Monsieur De Renty. 



* 

REVISED BY 

rev. w. Mcdonald. 






BOSTON : 



JOHN BENT & CO., PUBLISHERS, 

Office of "Advocate of Christian Holiness." 

1873- 



3 k 

fi-H-'Sa 



<j* J 



•,e Library 

CONGRB98 

WASHINGTON 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, 

By WILLIAM McDONALD, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



Boston : 
Stereotyped and Printed by Rand, Avery, &* Co. 



no \ 



V9 

i 




CO^TESTTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

His Birth, Marriage, and General Way of Life . . . 5 

CHAPTER H. 
His Humility 16 

CHAPTER III. 
His Self-Denial and Mortification . . . . . .33 

CHAPTER IV. 
His Patience 45 

CHAPTER V. 
His Faith . . I . .59 



> \ 



4 Contents. 

CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE. 

His Hope . • . . . . . . . .63 

CHAPTER VH. 
His Love of God 67 

CHAPTER VHI. 
His Love of Man 78 

CHAPTER IX. 

His Outward Behavior and Business Conduct . • .117 

CHAPTER X. 
Of His Death 129 




INTRODUCTION. 




ONSIEUR DE RENTY of France, a 
brief sketch of whose life is given in 
the following pages, was, in view of 
the times in which he lived, one of the most 
remarkable men of any age. He lived at a 
time when spirituality was at the lowest pos- 
sible ebb. Religious wars between Catholics 
and Protestants were at their height, result- 
ing in the sacrifice of not less than one mil- 
lion lives. Louis XIII., having banished his 
queen-mother, was on the throne ; and the 
intriguing, Protestant-hating Richelieu was 
his minister. 

i 



ii Introduction. 

M. De Renty, being a nobleman, or peer 
of France, was, of necessity, more or less 
identified with public affairs. He seems to 
have been a man of uncommon business 
ability, attending to all bis civil, social, and 
domestic duties with conscientious exactness. 

He had a remarkable religious experience. 
Living before F6nelon and Madame Guyon, 
those great lights of the seventeenth century, 
he did not follow them as an example. How 
far his holy life influenced them, we are 
unable to say. But he had no need of such 
examples, as he in all things followed Christ. 

His piety was not so much of the mystic 
or quietistic, as of the active type. Though 
a devout member of the Romish Church, he 
was untrammelled by her forms, and unstained 
by her persecuting spirit. He was pre-emi- 
nently a light in a dark place. His soul 
thirsted not only to be lost in the divine 



Introduction* iii 

will, but to glorify that will in blessing and 
saving souls. 

The love of God, with which his soul at all 
times seemed inflamed, prompted him to 
engage, without any reference to sacrifice or 
reproach, in any and every work to which the 
divine law or the manifest needs of hu- 
manity called. 

This little volume was first published by 
Rev* John Wesley, forming a part of one of 
the volumes of his early works. We are not 
aware of its having been published in 
English in any other form ; and even this has 
been for a long time out of print. 

The style was not smooth, being remarka- 
bly antique. To conform it somewhat to 
modern style, we have made such changes in 
the phraseology as we judged necessary ; in 
all cases retaining the sense, as well as the 
exact language, of M. De Renty wherever 
introduced. 



iv Introduction. 

The reader will still observe that the 
style is not as modern as could be desired, 
and could not be, without a complete recon- 
struction of the book. But we are sure that 
any defect in the style will be forgotten by 
the devout reader, as he imbibes the earnest, 
loving, God-adoring spirit which is manifest 
on almost every page. 

We are sure that no Christian can read 
this little volume through without catching 
the spirit of the subject, and being made 
better. It is another practical example of 
what grace can do for a human soul under 
the most disadvantageous circumstances, and 
connected with corrupt forms of Christianity. 
May it help all to trust Christ more fully for 
the fulness of God ! 

W. Mo Donald. 

Boston, 1873. 




Monsieur De Renty. 



-^§§-h 



CHAPTER I. 




HIS BIRTH, MARRIAGE, AND GENERAL "WAY 
OF LIFE. 

De RENTY descended from one of 
the most noble houses of Artois. He 
was the only son of Charles De Renty, 
and was born in the year 1611, at 
Beny in Low Normandy. When about six 
or seven years of age, his mother carried him 
to Paris, where he lived with her about two 
years, when he was put into the college of 
Navarre. He was subsequently sent to Caen, 
where he remained until he was seventeen, at 

5 



6 Monsieur De Renty. 

which, time he was removed to an acadenry, 
or school of genteel exercises, in Paris. He 
soon became accomplished in all the ex- 
ercises there taught. But what most pleased 
him was mathematics ; for the study of 
which he slighted all sorts of diversions till 
he had thoroughly mastered them. He com- 
posed several books upon the subject. 

About this time a stationer, with whom 
he traded, presented him with Kempis's 
" Imitation of Christ," and pressed him to 
read it ; which he had no sooner done than 
he felt new thoughts and affections, and 
resolved seriously to pursue the one thing 
needful, — - the working-out of his salvation. 
He so esteemed this book, that, ever after, he 
carried it about him, and made use of it on 
all occasions. 

At the age of twenty-two he married 
Elizabeth de Balsac, daughter of the Count 
of Graville, by whom he had five children, 
four of whom (two sons and two daughters) 
survived him. 



General Way of Life. 7 

Having lived to the age of twenty-seven 
years, it pleased God to touch his heart more 
powerfully. This was the beginning of that 
entire change, that perfect consecration to 
God's service, which characterized his whole 
life. He was well convinced of the necessity 
of a good spiritual guide, if he would be suc- 
cessful ; and God provided him one, such as 
his need required, — a person of much learn- 
ing, of deep piety, and well experienced in 
giving directions of souls. He was under 
this man's instruction for twelve years. By 
his advice, he withdrew altogether from 
court ; he renounced all visits of pure com- 
pliment, and all unnecessary employments, to 
give himself up to those which might glorify 
God, and help his neighbor. 

Every day before dinner, and again in the 
evening, he made a careful search into his 
smallest faults. He frequently went to the 
sacrament, having ever an incredible esteem 
of the holy eucharist, blessing and praising 
God for its institution, and exciting all men 



8 Monsieur De Benty. 

to do the same. He was wont to say, " that 
the great design of God in the incarnation, 
life, death, and resurrection of his Son, was 
to convey to us his Spirit, to be unto us 
life eternal ; and in order to cause us to die 
to ourselves, and live thereby, he gave him 
to us in this holy sacrament, and with him 
all the blessings of grace, to dispose us for 
those of glory." 

One day in each week he visited the poor 
sick people of the great hospital De Dieu ; 
another, those of his own parish • a third, the 
prisoners ; and in the rest he used to meet in 
assemblies for the promotion of piety. He 
assembled his own family every evening for 
prayers, and discoursed to them every Satur- 
day on the gospel for the next day. And of 
his children he took more special care to en- 
grave deeply in their minds the fear of God, 
and to convince them that the customs and 
maxims of the world were utterly irrecon- 
cilable to the gospel of Christ. 

In his journeys he observed the following 



General Way of Life. 9 

order : In the morning, before setting out, 
they joined in prayer ; after setting out, the 
first thing done was the saying the itinera- 
rium ; next, singing the litanies of our 
Lord; then followed some meditation, and, 
after that, a part of the divine office. This 
being done, he entertained the company with 
some instructive discourse. Beholding the 
spacious extent of the country, he would 
speak of the immensity of God. Upon the 
presenting of any beautiful object, he would 
discourse of the beauty of God, and in so 
lively a manner as to touch the very heart. 
Approaching near the place where they were 
to dine, he began his self-examination : and 
being come thither, as soon as he was out of 
his coach, he went to the church ; and next, if 
there were any in the place, to the hospital. 
Being £t his inn, the first thing he did in his 
chamber was to cast himself on his knees, 
and to pray with great affection for all per- 
sons that entered that place, and for pardon 
of all disorders that had been there commit- 



10 Monsieur De Renty. 

ted. If he saw any thing offensive written 
on the walls or chimneys, he defaced it, and 
in the place wrote something of instruction. 
And always before his departure he endeav- 
ored to give some good advice to the ser- 
vants of the house, or to such poor as he 
met with, that so he might not pass through 
any place without doing some good there. 
After dinner, when in his coach again, he took 
a little time for recollection, then sung the 
vespers; which done, he desired the com- 
pany to engage in some useful conversation. 
About four they sung the evening psalms ; 
afterward he applied himself to mental 
prayer ; and, being come to his inn, his ex- 
ercises were the same with those of the 
morning. 

A fuller account of his general way of 
life he wrote to his second director, as fol- 
lows : — 

" I have delayed some days after the com- 
mand I had to set down the employing of 
my time, for the better discovering of some 



General Way of Life. 11 

things therein ; but I find nothing there of 
strict order, because all consists in following 
the order of God, which causes, in a manner, 
continually different things, though all upon 
the same foundation. 

"For my outward behavior, I usually 
rise at five, that is, after part of the night 
spent in prayer. At my awakening, I con- 
sider myself as nothing before the majesty 
of God. I unite me to his Son and Spirit. 
Being risen, I cast myself down, and adore 
the blessing of the incarnation, which gives 
us access to God ; and deliver up myself to 
the Holy Jesus, to be entered into his Spirit. 

" Being clothed, I go into the chapel, 
where I cast myself down, and adore God, 
abasing me before him, and making myself 
the most little, most naked, most empty, 
that I can ; and I hold me there by faith, 
having recourse to his Son and to his Holy 
Spirit, that whatsoever is his pleasure may 
be done by me. 

" Between six and seven I read two chap- 



12 Monsieur De Renty. 

ters of the New Testament, bare headed and 
on my knees. I then give place to my 
affairs ; but, if there be no business urgent, I 
prostrate myself before God till I go to 
church. There I stay till half an hour past * 
eleven, except when we dine some poor peo- 
ple : then I return at eleven. Before dinner 
I examine myself, and use some prayers for 
the Church, and for the propagation of the 
faith. I dine at twelve, and in the while 
have something read. Half an hour past 
twelve, I spend an hour with them that have 
business with me. Then I go out whither 
the order of God shall direct. Some days 
are assigned for certain exercises, others are 
not ; but, be it as it will, I endeavor to 
spend, about evening, an hour in devotion. 
About seven, after I have used some prayers, 
we go to supper. After supper I instruct 
my children. At nine are family prayers, 
after which I meditate till ten; and then 
going to my chamber, and recommending 
myself to my God, after some short prayers, 
I endeavor to repose. 



General Way of Life. 13 

" As to the order of my interior, I have 
not, as I may say, any ; for, since I left my 
' Breviary,' * all my forms have left me ; and 
now, instead of serving me as means to go 
to God, they would only be hinderances.f I 
bear in me ordinarily an experimental verity, 
and a plenitude of the presence of the most 
Holy Trinity, which elevates me to a simple 
view of God; and with that I do all that 
his providence enjoins me, not regarding any 
thing for their greatness or littleness, but 
only the order of God, and the glory they 
may render him. 

" For the things done in communit}^, I often 
cannot rest there. I perform, indeed, the 
exterior for the keeping of order, but follow 
always my interior, because, when a man hath 
God, there is no need to search for him else- 
where. And, when he holds us in one man- 
ner, it is not for us to take hold of him in 

* A book containing the daily service of the Roman- Catholic 
Church. 

t Let prayer-readers remember this. A full soul needs no book. 



14 Monsieur Be Renty. 

another ; and the soul knows well what 
unites it, and what multiplies and directs it. 

" For the interior, therefore, I follow his 
attractive ; * and, for the exterior, I see the 
divine will, which I follow, with the discern- 
ment of his Spirit, in all simplicity : and so I 
possess by his grace, in all things, silence of 
spirit, a profound reverence, and solid peace. 
I continually give up myself to God through 
Jesus Christ, worshipping him in spirit and 
in truth, loving him with all my heart, with 
all my soul, with all my mind, and with all 
my strength, and seeing in all things the 
conduct of God, and adorning and following 
it. And, this only abiding in my soul, all 
things else are defaced and blotted out. I 
have nothing of sensible in me, unless now 
and then some transitory touches. But, if 
any dare to say it, when I sound my will, I 
find it so quick and flaming, that it would 
devour me, if the same Lord who animates 
it, though unworthy, did not restrain it. 

* His alluring, or attractive influence. 



General Way of Life. 



15 



I enter into a heat and into fire, and, even to 
my fingers' ends, feel that all within me 
speaks for its God, and stretcheth itself forth 
in length and breadth in his immensity, that 
it may there dissolve, and there lose itself, to 
glorify him/' 





CHAPTER II. 



HIS HUMILITY. 



g@T. AUSTIN well observes, that pov- 
t/ erty of spirit is nothing else but hu- 
mility: the truly humble, knowing 
,Q) themselves to be nothing of them- 
selves but sin and misery ; to have nothing ; 
as being at best but manifold receivers of the 
grace of God ; to be able to do nothing ; 
having no power of themselves even to think 
a good thought ; and to deserve nothing but 
shame and contempt, but misery and punish- 
ment. And they are willing, yea desirous, 
that all others should think of them as they 
do of themselves. 

16 



His Humility. 17 

M. De Renty — being well convinced that 
this is the foundation of all virtue, and that 
it was the proper virtue of Jesus Christ, 
whom he had proposed to himself as his 
pattern in all things, embraced it with his 
whole affection, — gave himself up to it with 
all his force, and practised it in its utmost 
latitude. 

He had so low an opinion of himself that it 
would be a difficult thing to express. The 
greatness of God, whenever he considered it, 
humbled him to an immeasurable depth. " A 
mote," said he, " in the sun is very little : but 
I am far less in the presence of God ; I am 
nothing." But, correcting himself, he added, 
" Alas ! I am too much : I am a sinner, an 
anathema through my crimes." To the same 
person he wrote, " Methinks I break myself 
in pieces before God. That I am spoken of, 
that I have so much as a name, is a strange 
thing." "I have seen him very often " (says 
one who knew him well) " humble himself as 
it were, to the centre of the earth, while he 

2 



18 Monsieur De Renty. 

spoke to me of God, saying, it was not for 
such a one as him to speak of him, but that 
he ought rather to contain himself in 
silence." 

This exceeding low opinion which he had 
of himself, made him more than once say, with 
tears in his eyes, that he was much astonished 
at the goodness of men in suffering of him ; 
and that he could not enough wonder why 
everywhere they threw not dirt at him, and 
that all the creatures did not bandy against 
him ; and he was persuaded it was much 
boldness in him to speak, and that men 
showed great patience in enduring his con- 
versation. 

Nor was there any thing which did not 
serve to increase his humility. He abased 
himself much in the consideration of the 
weakness of our nature, of which, as he ex- 
pressed it, " It is important that a man have 
experience, that he neither forget himself, 
nor the place he ought to hold ; that no flesh 
may glory in his sight ; that being abased, and 



His Humility. 19 

rendered as a thing that is not at all, Jesus 
Christ may be in him, the life of grace and 
holiness, waiting for the time of our redemp- 
tion." 

But he was much humbled by the consid- 
eration of his past sins. In one of his letters 
to his director, he writes thus, " My faults 
are as one great heap, which I feel in myself, 
obstructing the light from God. I am 
strangely remiss and ungrateful : I find much 
in myself to confound and humble me. 5 ' In 
another, " I am as blind, or rather more, in 
seeing my faults as in other things. Only in 
general, I have a deep sense of my misery ; 
and I can say I am not ignorant of my un- 
worthiness, and the deplorable corruption sin 
hath wrought in me. But lately I mentioned 
the faults of a certain person to another, that 
knew of them before, to make him under- 
stand that he was in a better condition. But 
my conscience reproached me, that I might 
have done this without ; and I confess I 
meddled too much in that affair. In sum, I 



20 Monsieur De Renty. 

am a straggler from God, and a ground 
overrun with thorns." 

He drew yet further matter of humiliation 
from his rank and condition, and the secular 
advantages which it gave him. He not only 
despised, but was ashamed of them; often 
groaning before the majesty of God, and say- 
ing, he was in the lowest condition, accord- 
ing to the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and that he 
had great confusion to see himself in that 
estate. Hence it was, that he solemnly re- 
nounced his nobility, and gave it into the 
hands of our Lord ; that he did not love even 
for any one to call him " Monsieur;" and 
that he wholly declined the title of " Mar- 
quis " (which was proper to his house), and 
suffered only that of Baron of Renty. 

Even the gifts and graces of God made 
him more humble, thus producing their true 
effect ; which is to abase and elevate the soul 
both together, — to raise it to God, and abase 
it to itself. In whatever good was done by 
him he assumed no share at all, but referred 



His Humility. 21 

all to God, the true source. And so, in the 
management of all those talents, he had al- 
ways his hands clean, without touching what 
appertaineth to God. Nor would he there- 
fore that any one should consider him in 
what he said or did, but regard God alone 
therein. And, to one who much desired a 
visit from him, he wrote thus, " I cannot bear 
the account you make of my visits and so- 
ciety. Let us look much upon God ; let us 
bind ourselves strictly to Jesus Christ, that 
we may learn of him fully to renounce our- 
selves. Oh, my God ! when will it be that 
we shall eye ourselves no more, when we 
shall speak no more of ourselves, and when 
all vanity shall be destroyed ! " 

He likewise esteemed himself most un- 
worthy of any of the grace or favors of God. 
Of which he says to a friend, " The gifts of 
God are sometimes so great, that they put us 
beyond ourselves. As among men, if a poor 
man receives a gift from a prince, according 
to the grandeur of his own power, he is 



22 Monsieur Be Rerity. 

utterly overwhelmed, and can find no words 
to express his acknowledgment : so God 
gives blessings that go beyond our expecta- 
tions or capacities, and which make us see 
how unworthy we are, without daring to lift 
up our eyes, so doth their brightness dazzle, 
and their greatness astonish us." 

The same opinion which he had of him- 
self he was willing, yea, desirous, that others 
likewise should have of him. "If I were to 
wish any thing," said he, " it should be to 
be much humbled, and to be treated as an 
off-scouring by men." And hence he re- 
ceived contempt, when it came, not with 
patience only, but with joy; of which he 
gave an evident proof in his first journey to 
Dijon, whence he thus wrote to his direc- 
tor : — 

" The reports here spread concerning me 
are, that I have nothing but artifice and 
shows of devotion ; and that I kept private, 
out of fear, by coming abroad, of discovering 
what I was. Most, I find, even of those 



His Humility. 23 

from whom I expected quite the contrary, 
have solicited against me. And hereby God 
hath shown me many favors. I have been 
with them, and received humiliation with 
great joy. I have been very wary of opening 
myself in any thing that might recommend 
me to them. I have only done in my busi- 
ness what truth required ; and, for any thing 
else, I have made it matter of confusion, as 
I ought. I shall be here, I believe, as one 
excommunicate, as the scape-goat of the old 
law, — driven out into the wilderness for my 
enormous sins. I desire only to love God, 
and condemn myself." 

Nor was it only in his words, but in his 
actions also, that the humility of his heart 
appeared. Since his entire dedication of 
himself to God, he would not suffer a cushion 
to be carried to church for him ; but, to be 
there hid and disregarded, he often mingled 
himself among mechanics and mean persons. 
He kept himself always as much as he could 
at the lower end of the church; and fre- 



24 Monsieur Be Benty. 

quently, if the door was shut, said his 
prayers on the outside of it, that he " might 
not," as he said, " put any to the trouble of 
opening it to a poor sinner." 

During the war at Paris, he went himself 
to buy bread for the poor, and carried 
through the streets as* much as his strength 
would permit. At the same time offering to 
take into his care the church-plate of a mon- 
astery ; he pressed them to let him carry it to 
his lodging (which was two miles away) 
and on foot as he was, — a very large and 
weighty piece. And being desired, that, 
when he did them the favor to visit them 
again, he would come in his coach, by reason 
of the distance, he answered, he did not 
love to make use of a coach ; he must en- 
deavor to make himself in every thing very 
little. He went, therefore, thither on foot, 
and returned at five or six, in the shortest 
clays, sometimes in thawing weather. And, 
being told of the pains he took, he replied, 
" Our Lord took pains in a far other 
manner." 



His Humility. 25 

When he was assisting with his own hand 
in the repairing of one of his houses, he thus 
expressed himself : — 

" Blessed forever be our great God, by 
Jesus Christ ! I believe I ought to labor in 
the lowest employments ; and the time I 
spend therein I count very dear, regarding it 
as ordered by God. What makes me the 
more to know it is his order is this, — that 
from time to time I feel more of retribution 
from him in one instant than the patience 
and humiliation of a sinner could merit in 
all his life. He so opens himself to me, that 
I am quite mollified, and melted into tears. 
My eyes are so full of them, that often I 
have much ado to keep them in, pierced as 
I am with love, with reverence, and with 
acknowledgment of his goodness manifested 
by his enlightening presence, and of his inex- 
plicable conduct. I see we are not, by a 
spirit of pride, under pretence of the glory 
of God, to dispense with ourselves from 
laboring in things mean and painful. It was 



26 Monsieur Be Renty. 

a work very gross and mean for Jesus Christ 
to converse with men, who had more of 
rudeness than these stones I deal with. Oh 
that I may obtain a part in his obedience, 
and submission to the orders of God his 
Father !" 

Being obliged, one day, to go to a person 
of great quality on business which much 
concerned the glory of God, he would not 
consent to use his coach, though he was to 
traverse, in a manner, all Paris in a pouring 
rain. One requested, that at least his foot- 
man carry a cloak, which he might use when 
he returned. But he yielded not. He only 
consented to throw the cloak over him ; and 
in the nobleman's house he laid aside the wet 
cloak, and appeared in the other ordinary one 
of his own. 

Another example of his humility, of which 
he wrote to his director, Dec. 26, 1646 : — 

" The other day, my lord-chancellor's lady 
sent me a packet of letters, in which were 
some from the king, wherein I was made 



His Humility. 27 

counsellor of state. I sent her word that I 
received what had the mark of the king 
with all respect ; but I most humbly begged 
she would be pleased to take it in good part 
if I did not accept those letters, but desired 
that the business might sleep without noise. 
My disposition towards affairs of this nature 
is to have nothing at all to do with them. 
If they come upon me perforce, without my 
seeking, our Lord will give me strength to 
bear them." 

To the same person, on another occasion, 
he wrote as follows : — 

" Walking one day through the streets of 
Paris in a mean dress, I deeply reflected on 
that of the apostle, 4 We are become as the 
filth and off-scouring of the world.' I con- 
sidered how much neatness and new things, 
even in the most trifling instances, do hurt 
(if one take not good heed) the simplicity 
and lowliness of a Christian spirit. And I 
saw it was a great temptation for any to 
think to preserve his outward grandeur in 



28 Monsieur Be Renty. 

hopes thereby to have more weight and au- 
thority for the service of God. This is a 
pretence, indeed, that the infirmity of most 
Christians makes use of in the beginning ; 
but experience draws them at last to Jesus 
Christ, who was made the lowest of men." 

A further proof of his humility was seen in 
his carriage to the director. He did nothing 
that concerned himself, without his knowl- 
edge. To him he proposed, clearly and 
punctually, whatever he designed, either by 
speaking or writing, desiring his " advice, his 
pleasure, and blessing upon it ; " and that, 
with the utmost respect and submission, and 
without reply or disputing, he simply and ex- 
actly followed his order. His director having 
written to him, he answered in these terms : 
" I beseech you to believe, that although I 
am most imperfect, and a great sinner, yet, if 
you do me the favor to send me a word of 
what you know to be necessary for me, I 
hope, with God's help, to profit thereby. I 
pant not after any thing but to find God and 



His Humility. 29 

Jesus Christ, in simplicity and truth. I pre- 
tend to nothing in this world but this ; and 
beside this I desire nothing." 

The last effect of his humility which we 
shall mention was his extreme contempt of the 
world. He despised all which it could give 
or promise, — all its goods, pleasures, honors, 
dignities ; counted all its allurements as dung 
and dross ; trampled under foot all its glories. 
He beheld for this end our Lord for his pat- 
tern, who, from his very first entrance into it, 
made an open profession of an absolute con- 
tempt of it, " Because he was not of the 
world." 

To animate a lady with the same spirit, he 
wrote to her thus : " I wonder how a thing so 
little as man, drawn out of nothing in his 
original, infected with his first parent's sin, 
and the addition of his own, when he is 
raised to so high a degree of honor as to be 
one with Christ the Son of God, can con- 
tinue to esteem the world, or make any ac- 
count of its vanities ! Shall the things of 



30 Monsieur Be Benty. 

the earth waste the little time we have to 
secure the treasures of heaven, — things that 
will all pass away like a dream, as we see our 
fathers are gone already, and there is no 
more remembrance of them. Their joys and 
griefs, their pleasures and pains — are they 
not all vanished away ? And are we not sure 
they were out of their senses, if they con- 
sidered any thing but God in their ways ? 
The same will befall us. Every thing else 
will pass away, and God alone will abide." 

The same lady, in another letter, he en- 
courages thus : " Courage, all is well ! We 
must die to the world, and search out the 
hinderances it brings to our perfection. We 
must live in the world as not living there ; 
possess it as not possessing it. Let us drive 
out of our minds the affection to our fine 
houses; let us ruin the delights of our gar- 
dens ; let us burn our groves ; let us banish 
these vain images which we have of our 
children, approving in them what we con- 
demn in ourselves, — the show and glitter of 
the world." 



His Humility. 31 

" I know there is a difference of conditions ; 
but all ought to reject those entailments on 
noble blood (as men account them), those 
principles of aspiring to the highest, and of 
bearing nothing. Let us take from them 
this vanity of mind, this stateliness of be- 
havior ; let us arm them against the perni- 
cious examples of those grandees in story, 
whose punishments are as eminent in hell 
as their presumption was upon earth. 

" My design is not that you should demol- 
ish your walk, or let your gardens run into a 
wilderness. The ruins I speak of must be 
made in our own minds, not executed on 
things insensible. When I say we must set 
all on fire, my thoughts were to follow that 
admirable spirit of the apostle, who would 
that we have poverty amidst our riches, and 
divestment in the midst of our possessions. 
He means that our spirit be thoroughly puri- 
fied, and separated from all creatures ; be- 
cause a Christian does himself great wrong, 
if he entertains in his heart any other inch- 



32 Monsieur Be Renty. 

nations than those of Jesus Christ, who saw- 
all the world without destroying it, but, 
withal, without cleaving to it." 

It is to bring us to this spirit that God 
permits us to meet so many pains and trou- 
bles in the world ; as when a man plans 
thorns in one way to make men take another. 
" God has his ends," says M. De Renty, " in 
all these contrarieties ; viz., that those who 
are his should be yet more his, and despise 
more and more all that is in the world. By 
these the confusion and vanity of the world 
are made known to them that are not of it, 
who, being in the spirit of death, wait for 
nothing more there but death, bringing 
forth, in the mean while, the fruits of life 
eternal." 




CHAPTER III. 




HIS SELE-DENIAL AND MORTIFICATION. 

^ S it is absolutely necessary for every 
soldier of Christ, who would not 
fight as one that beateth the air, to 
keep the body under, and bring it 
into subjection, M. De Renty vigorously ap- 
plied himself to this work. He made but 
one meal a day for several years, till he was 
enjoined to take more nourishment to be the 
better able to undergo the great labors he 
undertook for his neighbor. He nevertheless 
ate but little, and always of the most com- 
mon food. A person who observed him at 
dinner one day took notice that all he ate 

3 33 



34 Monsieur Be Eenty. 

was some pears, and that with so great 
seriousness and recollection, that it was easy 
to discern that his mind was on God, and 
not upon his meat. 

When one of his friends entertained him 
one day at Caen, he was much grieved (as he 
afterwards declared) that Christians should 
be feasters ; adding, it was a torment to be 
where there was so much superfluity. 
Hereon his friends took no more thought 
about his diet, knowing his best entertain- 
ment was the meanest fare, and that they 
could not oblige him more than by leaving 
him to his liberty. And often at Paris, 
when he was so far from home, that he could 
not return to dinner, he would step into a 
baker's shop, and secure a piece of bread and 
a draught of water, and then cheerfully go 
on with his business. 

Being come to Pointois in winter, and 
lodging at the Carmelite Nuns, he told them 
not to make a fire or prepare a bed. He 
then went to visit the prisoners (which he 



His Self-Denial and Mortification. 35 

never forgot) ; and on his return (about nine 
in the evening), finding them going to 
prayers, without taking any thing to eat, he 
went into the church with them, where he 
continued till eleven. And indeed at every 
time and every place, on every occasion, even 
in the smallest things, he kept a watchful 
eye over himself, that he might in no in- 
stance fulfil the desires of the flesh, but daily 
inure himself to endure hardship. 

A short description of his mortification, or 
deadness to the world, we have in his own 
words: "Since the time I gave up my liberty 
to God, I was given to understand to what a 
state the soul is brought, which is capable of 
union with him. I saw my soul reduced into 
a small point, contracted and shrunk up to 
nothing. At the same time I beheld myself 
as encompassed with whatsoever the world 
loves, and, as it were, a hand removing all 
this far from me, and plunging it into the 
ocean. First, I saw removed all outward 
things, — kingdoms, great offices, stately 



36 Monsieur De Renty. 

buildings, rich and elegant furniture, gold 
and silver, recreations, pleasures ; all which 
hinder the Soul in her way to God, of which, 
therefore, it is his pleasure she be divested, 
that she may arrive at that death which will 
bring her into the possession of real life. 
Secondly, all inward things, which are of a • 
more delicate and precious nature, — as learn- 
ing, reason, strength of memory, and under- 
standing ; to which, likewise, we are in a 
manner dead, if we are alive to God. And 
I perceived that we must come like little 
infants, simple and innocent, separated not 
only from evil, but even from our ordinary 
manner of doing what is good. We are to 
undertake what things the divine Providence 
presents to us by making our way by God to 
them, rather than by them to God. A truly 
mortified Soul sees nothing but God ; not so 
much (if I may so speak) as the things she 
does, of which nothing stays in her — neither 
choice nor joy nor sorrow — for their great- 
ness or for their littleness, for good or bad 



His Self-Denial and Mortification. 37 

success, but only the good pleasure and order 
of God, which ruleth in all things, and which 
in all things contents the soul that adheres 
to him, and not to the vicissitude of affairs, 
and is therefore constantly, even always, 
the same in the midst of all changes." 

As to the particulars of M. De Renty's 
mortification, he was, in the first place, dead 
to riches. " I acknowledge before God " 
(says he in a letter to his director) " his great 
mercy to me through his Son in freeing me 
from the things of this world ; and my con- 
stant thoughts are, that, if his order did not 
oblige me to do otherwise, I would quit all 
that I have." To another: " All that can 
be imagined in this world is of small con- 
cern, though it were the losing of all our 
goods. This poor ant-hill is not worth a 
serious thought. Had we but a little faith 
and a little love, how happy should we 
esteem ourselves in giving away all to 
attend on God only! " 

Thus, even in the possession of riches, 



38 Monsieur Be Benty. 

was his heart entirely disengaged from them. 
And, when the greater part of his estate was 
in danger of being lost, he said, without the 
least emotion, " Since God hath committed 
this estate to me, I will do what shall be- 
hoove me to preserve it ; and then 'tis all 
one to me what follows." Yea, he often 
expressed a kind of holy envy toward the 
poor, and a high esteem of their condition, 
both as most advantageous for Christian per- 
fection, and because Christ himself had 
lived and died therein. " I avow to you " 
(says he to a friend), " the more of riches 
come to me, the more do I discover of the 
malignity affixed to them. My heart is 
strongly inclined to follow Him who was the 
most poor and depressed among all his fol- 
lowers. But that I know I may not put 
myself into that estate, I should pant after 
it very much. What I infer from hence is 
this, that, not knowing the counsels of God, 
I cannot tell how he will dispose of me for 
the future ; but I offer myself up to what- 



His Self-Denial and Mortification. 39 

soever shall please him, knowing that with 
him I can do all things." 

And as he was dead to riches and to all 
the things of the world, so he was to the 
persons in it; having no affection for any, 
but what was grounded upon and subordi- 
nate to the love of God. This was particu- 
larly observable with regard to those who 
were engaged to him by one of the tenderest 
ties, who depended upon him, and used his 
counsel for the conduct of their souls. To 
one of these he wrote : "I cannot hear with- 
out trouble the great matter you make of my 
conversation. Let us breathe after God, and 
learn from Jesus Christ an entire renuncia- 
tion of our own affections." And in another 
letter he says, " Jesus Christ is ever the 
same, and his grace is continually advancing ; 
and, as long as I am his, I shall be yours for 
his sake. He is not wont to part souls by 
the separation of bodies ; since his custom is, 
only to take away what might be a hinder- 
ance to the perfect life of the spirit." 



40 Monsieur De Renty. 

To a friend who had lost his director, he 
wrote thus : " His remove would doubtless 
be a great loss to you and all the country, if 
the providence of God did not rather sanc- 
tify and establish than destroy. But, by 
removing these visible supports, he often 
settles us more firmly in our adherence to 
him through Christ, where we find all power, 
and who is so near that he is even in the 
midst of us. And, when our dependence 
upon creatures is cut off by his providence, 
we experimentally find that we are not left 
destitute, but that supply is made either by 
the spirit which dwelleth in us, or by his 
ministers that remain ; who the fewer they 
are, the more is the grace we receive by them 
multiplied. Nor should we be further en- 
gaged to those who assist us in our spiritual 
conduct than as to God's instruments, whose 
help it is his will we should make use of, 
but no longer than he pleaseth ; and when 
it is his will to take them from us by 
death, or otherwise, we ought not to lose our 



His Self -Denial and Mortification. 41 

courage, but with submission and gratitude 
resign all to him, who will again provide for 
us as seemeth him best." 

He was dead also to all desire of every 
kind. Being one day asked how he could 
be so quiet in such circumstances, he an- 
swered, that, through God's mercy, he 
was indifferent to all things, and that he no 
longer felt either fear or desire of any 
thing. And, writing to his director, he says, 
" For the future I could wish, if there be 
any thing left for me to wish, that I had 
nothing left me but my God. This is the 
rich treasure of the heart, the sure replen- 
ishment of the soul.' 9 

He had no eager desire even of sensible 
consolations, touching which he expressed 
himself thus : " Dryness, and other troubles 
of spirit, are to be borne with upon any 
terms; and we must give up ourselves as 
forlorn creatures, throwing ourselves wholly 
upon God." And again : " However dry 
your soul may be when you endeavor to 



42 Monsieur De Benty. 

place it in a state of reverence and affiance 
in the presence of God, persevere still as 
much as you can, and keep yourself shut up 
in the cabinet of your heart ; suffer not the 
noise of all those tempests without ; be still, 
and mind them not. They have all their 
use : they serve to purge the soul, and dis- 
pose it for the operation of God upon it. 
Let, then, distractions, and all sorts of imagi- 
nations, assault you, as it pleaseth God ; but 
let them not hinder you from that holy 
exercise ; diverting (as you are able) your 
mind from them, continue your sacrifice, 
with full assurance you shall not wait long 
before your Lord come." And, when he 
found himself for a time in such a condi- 
tion, he would cry out aloud, "I am thine, 

God ! in spite of all these things, and so 

1 will continue without reserve forever." 
And sometimes he would write with his 
finger upon the ground, " I am content with 
every thing that proceeds from the will of 
God; I ask nothing else but what he ap- 



His Self-Denial and Mortification. 43 

points for me ; I will never trouble myself 
to be freed from dryness ; my resolution is, 
to bless God at all times." 

Finally he was dead to his own will, 
which he had perfectly resigned in con- 
formity to the will of God. " Far be it 
from me," saith he in one of his letters, to 
act in this by my own spirit : I would have 
it wholly annihilated, that it might know no 
other language but nothing, and continually 
nothing ; to follow in all the footsteps of the 
divine will, according to its measure and 
manner." In another, thus : " My Saviour 
hath graciously brought me to such a state 
of indifferency for every thing, that I could 
be well contented, all my life, to be fixed to 
my bed, a paralytic, not able to stir, without 
making any reflection on any service I might 
render to my neighbor, or that I could ren- 
der him no more ; all things according to the 
will of God being equal to me." And in 
another : " Of late I have been busied in such 
employments as were sufficient to have over- 



44 Monsieur Be Renty. 

whelmed so weak a spirit as mine, had it not 
been absolutely resigned to the will of God. 
It is on him alone I rest, having renounced 
myself. I adore the decrees of his sacred 
will, who holdeth all things in his own 
hands, to keep us subject unto him by his 
justice, and to sanctify us by his love ; 
happy if we have the hearts of children, 
the spirit of Christ Jesus, to sigh after him, 
and cry continually, ' Abba, Father.' " 





CHAPTER IV. 



HIS PATIENCE. 



<£&> 




| NQUESTIONABLY the humble man 
is patient, because he knows he de- 
serves far more than he suffers ; and 
whoever will search into the true 
cause of his own impatience will find it to 
be no other than pride. On the contrary, 
M. de Renty, being most humble, was, con- 
sequently, most patient. 

Persons who had lived a very long time 
with him, and carefully observed all his 
actions, never heard him complain for any 
thing whatever, — neither for sickness or loss, 
or any other occasion ; but they always ob- 

45 



46 Monsieur Be Renty. 

served in him a constancy immovable ; con- 
tinually lifting up his heart to God, and 
offering all to him, without otherwise dwell- 
ing on what was grievous ; being glad that 
the work of God went on, and receiving all 
in the spirit of sacrifice. 

In his second journey to Dijon, with his 
wife and the Countess of Chatres, he was 
seized with a violent rheumatism, inducing 
severe pain in every part of his body, obli- 
ging him to take his bed, to which he went 
supported by a staff, and by a person that led 
him. But, notwithstanding the extremity of 
the pain, he made no complaint, nor uttered 
one word. The ladies, seeing him first 
quite pale and wan, and in a moment all on 
fire, told him that he was very ill. He 
answered only by a discourse on the pain 
endured by Jesus Christ, and the favor it was 
for a soul to suffer for God's will, but in 
terms so full of sweetness, and with so much 
of love and zeal, that the company were 
affected with great devotion in hearing him. 



His Patience. 47 

When he was again asked whether he was 
not in much pain, he at length answered 
plainly, " My pains are great, even to swoon- 
ing ; but though I feel their extremity, yet. 
through the grace of God, I yield not up 
myself to them, but to him." He said 
further, that being led into his chapel of 
Citry, and set down upon a bench by reason 
of his illness, the bench broke without any 
visible cause, and that he believed the evil 
spirit had broken it in order to provoke him 
to impatience, making him fall untowardly. 
"But by the mercy of God," said he, 
" though the pain that surprised me was 
sharp, I was no more moved than you see me 
now." 

Nor was it only in sickness, but in all oc- 
currences of life, he carefully practised this 
virtue ; so that whatsoever befell him, though 
it shocked his whole nature, — his body, spirit, 
judgment, will, inclination, desires, designs, 
and those of the best sort, — he possessed his 
soul in patience and tranquillity, receiving all 



48 Monsieur De Renty. 

without any alteration, without being either 
exalted or dejected by it. 

" Praying to God," says he in one of his 
prayers, before the holy sacrament, " a poor 
man came to me to beg an alms. In this 
instant it was given me to understand, that, 
if we were well enlightened, we should 
never imagine ourselves to be hindered by 
any person or thing, because we should in 
all things regard the order of God, conduct- 
ing all to our advantage ; we should see that 
both inward and outward distractions are to 
be received with this same spirit ; and that 
the uneasiness these little accidents give us 
springs purely from our want of mortifica- 
tion. We ought indeed, as far as we can, to 
shun the occasions ; but, when they come, 
we must look upon them as ordered by God, 
and receive and bear them with all sweet- 
ness, humility, and reverence : and, though 
they interrupt us, the order of God is not 
interrupted in us. And this, indeed, is the 
great secret of the spiritual life : this is para- 
dise upon earth. 



His Patience. 49 

" In truth, nothing troubles us but through 
our own fault. All the vexation which we 
inwardly feel or outwardly show when any 
one crosses or hinders us from doing any 
thing, flows from the disorder of our too 
much engaged spirit. For the removing of 
which, and the keeping our hearts in peace, 
we must mark this well, — whoever hinders 
us from doing one good work, thereby gives 
us the means of practising another. A man, 
for instance, interrupts your reading and 
prayer ; but he gives you an occasion of 
exercising patience, which at this time will 
please God, and perfect you more than all 
those employments. In them there was 
something of your own will ; but in this you 
wholly renounce yourself. And the fulness 
of God is not but in the emptiness of the 
creature." 

One great source of M. De Renty's pa- 
tience was the high esteem he had of suf- 
ferings, which sometimes made him ready 
to cry out with that holy woman, " Either to 

4 



50 Monsieur De Renty. 

die or suffer ! " " I see," says he, " that in 
a manner every thing is unprofitable in this 
life but to suffer. Every pleasure is a too 
hasty seizure of that recompense which is 
not due to criminals, who sojourn in this 
world only to be purged. Some pleasures, 
indeed, may be sometimes necessary, in re- 
gard of our weakness ; but even they are apt 
to hinder the soul from attaining so high a 
degree of perfection." 

" Though I dare not choose or bring suffer- 
ings upon myself " (says he in a letter to his 
director), " yet, having always before my eyes 
how little I render to God for his favors, I 
am inflamed to suffer with our Lord. In 
every other thing we are receivers from God ; 
but in this, though we receive the grace to 
suffer, yet the suffering is that which we 
can in a manner give to God, and which is 
the best gauge and proGf of our love." But 
he very wisely adds, " Although I know this, 
yet I cease not to know what I am : and, 
amidst all my inclinations and desires, I dare 



His Patience. 51 

not beg to suffer the least thing ; or, if I 
happen to do so, I revoke it afterwards as 
having done foolishly. I have too much 
experience of my weakness. I give myself 
only to my God for every thing he pleases. 
By his order I will all. With him I can do 
all ; and that which is ordered by him is 
always accompanied by grace." 

The same spirit he earnestly recommended 
to all who were studious of Christian per- 
fection. To one of whom he said, " It is a 
great favor to suffer ; that is, if you suffer in 
the spirit of Jesus Christ. But there are 
very few that do so ; very few who are 
perfectly resigned to what God ordains con- 
cerning them ; very few without some dis- 
quietude and dwelling in their thoughts upon 
their pressures ; few that give all events to 
the conduct of God, to employ themselves 
entirely in his praise, and to give way by 
their acquiescence and submission for him 
to exercise all his rights and power over 
them." 



52 Monsieur Be Renty. 

One that was in great pain he encouraged 
thus : " Many are called Christians ; but few 
have a Christian spirit. Many look up to 
heaven in their prayers ; but in their lives 
they are children of nature, looking only 
upon the earth. If they do lift up their 
eyes to heaven, it is only to complain ; to 
pray God to condescend to their desires, not 
to show their acceptance of his. Or per- 
haps they will give some small things to 
God, but not those on which they have 
fixed their affection. If he separates them 
from them, it is a dismembering which he 
must make, and to which they cannot con- 
sent ; as though the life of Christians were 
not a life of sacrifice, a continual imitation 
of a crucified Saviour. 

" God, who knows our wretchedness, takes 
from us, for our good, the cause of our evil, — 
a parent, a child, a husband, — that he may by 
another evil — affliction — draw us to himself, 
and make us see that all these ties to what- 
soever it be that separates us from him are 



His Patience. 53 

so many obstacles to our real happiness, and 
such obstacles, that we shall one day own, in 
the face of all the creation, the greatest 
mercy he ever did us was to free us from 
them. But we must beware not to count 
this mercy a chance or misfortune ; for this 
would be to turn the remedy into poison. 

" Let us enter into the holy disposition 
which was in Christ, tq suffer willingly for 
the glory of God and our salvation. Is it 
not strange, that though the way he passed 
through to glory was ignominy, pain, and the 
cross, yet they who call themselves his fol- 
lowers desire and expect another way for 
themselves to walk in ? It is a shame for a 
Christian to pass his days more at ease than 
Jesus Christ did. Let us, therefore, go after 
him, and suffer with him. Blessed be sick- 
ness, the loss of honor, riches, goods of the 
nearest things, and the separation from all 
creatures which hold us bowed towards the 
earth, if it set us straight, and make us lift 
up our eyes to heaven, and enter into the 



54 Monsieur Be Renty. 

designs of God over us ! Blessed be the 
plague, the war, the famine, all the scourges 
of God, which produce in us these effects of 
grace and salvation ! " 

The greatest exercise of patience he ever 
had was that which was given to him by his 
mother. She had claimed a large share of 
what his father had bequeathed to him ; who, 
with great submission and respect, gave her 
all that he believed her due over and above ; 
but she demanded still more. Being advised 
by his council that it could not be given with- 
out wrong to his children, he referred the 
whole business to arbitrators, and agreed that 
his mother should choose them all. The 
day being come for their giving sentence, his 
mother was in one chamber of the house, 
and her son, with his wife and a friend, in 
another, where his employment was to pray 
to God for such an issue as might be for his 
glory and the procurement of peace. When 
the award was brought, although it was not 
advantageous to him, and there was a large 



His Patience. 55 

penalty on whomsoever did not abide by it, 
he heard it with perfect calmness, and imme- 
diately signed it without objection or dis- 
pute. 

Believing now that his mother was fully 
satisfied, he no sooner returned home than he 
caused " Te Deum " to be sung, beginning it 
himself, in thanksgiving for this happy con- 
clusion. But God, to refine and purify him 
the more, permitted the cross to continue 
upon him ; for his mother, not satisfied yet, 
found means to appeal from the award, with- 
out incurring the penalty. 

Her son did all that was possible for him to 
do to alter her design. After earnest prayer, 
and extraordinary fasting, he went to her, cast 
himself on his knees before her, and with the 
utmost reverence, humility, and submission, 
begged of her over and over, with abundance 
of tears, that she would please to take him 
and his family to herself ; and after that she 
might dispose as she pleased of all the goods 
his father had left him. But neither would 



56 Monsieur Be Renty. 

she consent to this, but persisted in her reso- 
lution of suing him at the parliament of 
Dijon. This he might have prevented, and 
never stirred out of Paris ; but, in respect to 
her, he declined it, and determined to go to 
Dijon. 

On his arrival at Dijon, he found the minds 
of all fully prejudiced against him, which 
he gladly endured, that he might be par- 
taker of the reproach, and honor the abase- 
ment, of the Son of God. And when a 
person of piety acquainted him with the 
strange reports which were spread abroad 
concerning him, he with admirable calmness 
raised his heart to God, and humbled him- 
self before' him. She asked whether it was 
true that injurious papers had been put in 
against his mother. He answered, No : he 
had seen all the writings, and found them 
drawn with the respect due to a parent. She 
asked, further, if he was not much afflicted 
at her harsh manner of proceeding against 
him. He replied,' " No ; because I so much 



His Patience. 57 

adore the order of God over me, that I 
cannot be afflicted at that which he permits 
to befall me. I am a great sinner ; and 
therefore not only my mother, but all the 
world, have just cause to take part against 
me." 

She adds, in a memorial, that many ways 
were proposed for adjusting the difference, 
but that it was the greatest difficulty in the 
world to bring his mother to join in any; 
that, in the midst of these delays, she said 
to M. De Renty, " Sir, I shall willingly say 
the Te Deum when once your business is 
ended." One day, when they believed it 
would be wholly concluded, he came to her 
with a cheerful countenance, and said, " It 
is now time, say the Te Deum, since you 
had the goodness to promise it. And may 
I be so bold as to desire to say it with 
you ? Oh ! what a great and wise God have 
we, who knows well how to do all things, — 
as they ought, and when they ought, — not 
according to our precipitation, but his order, 



58 Monsieur Be Renty. 

which is our sanctification ! " Hereupon he 
said the " Te Deum," with a spirit so elevated 
to God as gave sufficient evidence of his 
being wholly filled with him. And when, 
afterwards, all was broken off, without hope 
of making up again, he said, " It is well. 
Though nothing be done, it was very fit to 
return thanks to God for doing his own will, 
and not that of a sinner unworthy to be 
heard or regarded." 

There passed many other things at Dijon, 
and since at Paris, during these differences, 
even to the death of his mother; but I 
doubt not, he who is now in the place of 
perfect charity approves of passing over 
in silence the failings of her to whom, all his 
life, he bore so much love and respect. 



^7 




CHAPTER V. 



HIS FAITH. 




DE RENTY studied with a particu- 
lar care a solid foundation for this 
virtue, knowing how all other virtues 
depend upon it ; and he possessed it in 
so high a degree, that he was more assured of 
the presence of God, and the truth of the 
mysteries of Christianity, than of the shin- 
ing 6f the »un. He truly lived by faith : 
this was the path wherein he walked. He 
beheld things not with his bodily eyes, but 
with those that pierced deeper ; considering 
them not according to their present condi- 

59 



60 Monsieur Be Renty. 

tion, or the order of nature, but according 
to their future and eternal, their relation to 
grace and glory ; regarding nothing but as it 
was or might be a means of his own or 
others' salvation. 

Being fortified by this faith, he was wont 
to say he felt no difficulty at all, when, in his 
younger years, he was in a state of dryness, 
wholly deprived of sensible comforts. In 
one of his letters he says, " We seldom meet 
with persons addicted to prayer that behave 
themselves well under inward trials.* They 
have no patience to wait for comfort. They 
fret themselves, and hurry this way and 
that, as if by their own means they could 
procure it, seeking for another support than 
that of faith ; which alone should suffice 
any spiritual man. For the just should 
live by faith, and on that foundation rest, in 
expectation of our Saviour, with patience ;' 
knowing these joys are but supplements to 

* He means, those who depend on their prayers, and do not trust 
alone in Christ. Believing is more pleasing to G-od than praying. 



His Faith. 61 

the littleness, and cordials for the faintings 
of our faith." 

Animated by this spirit, he relied not on 
any thing that came to him in an extraordi- 
nary way; resting neither on visions, mira- 
cles, revelations, nor inward motions, but 
solely on a pure and naked faith, to carry 
him to God. 

He knew that Christian perfection con- 
sisted in nothing else but the renewal of the 
soul in faith, hope, and charity ; in perform- 
ing to God the sacrifice^ of a lively faith, a 
perfect hope, and a fervent charity. To cul- 
tivate and adorn his soul with these was 
therefore his constant care, to unite it more 
and more intimately with God, through faith 
working by love, and to give himself up 
with all his strength to this hidden and 
divine life. 

Some years before his death, he was pecu- 
liarly employed in the contemplation of the 
blessed Trinity. He gave this account to his 
spiritual guide : " I carry about with me ordi- 



62 Monsieur De Reniy. 

narily an experimental verity, and a pleni- 
tude of the presence of the Holy Trinity." 
And again: "I possess the sacred Trinity, 
with a plenitude of truth and clearness ; and 
this in so pure and vigorous a manner, that 
my outward employment creates me no 
diversion at all." At another time he writes 
thus : " Jesus Christ worketh the experience 
of his kingdom in my heart ; and I find him 
there my Lord and my Master, and myself 
wholly his. I discover now a greater en- 
largement of my heart, but such as I am not 
able to express ; only thus, it is a simple but 
most real sight of the Trinity, continually 
accompanied with praising, blessing, and of- 
fering all homage thereto." 





CHAPTER VI. 




HIS HOPE. 

STRONG faith always produces a 
firm hope and charity. A true belief 
7 in God — what he is in himself, and 
what he is to us — will work a strong 
affiance in him, and ardent charity towards 
him, as appeared in M. De Renty, who, being 
grounded in faith, had also an undarinted 
hope, and inflamed affections. 

The experience of the power and mercy of 
God, and faith in the infinite merits of our 
Redeemer, were the two pillars on which he 
built his hope; and, resting on these, he 
hoped all things. He used to say, that, 



64 Monsieur Be Benty. 

when lie looked at himself, there was noth- 
ing so little wherein he apprehended not 
difficulty ; but, when he looked upon God, 
he could think nothing difficult, much less 
impossible. 

Accordingly, in all affairs, he relied not 
upon his own prudence, conduct, care, or any 
human strength or wisdom, but on God 
alone, saying, "When we have done our 
duty, with great diffidence in ourselves, we 
ought to attend wholly on God, and wait his 
time." Writing to a friend, he says, " As for 
my children, I leave them in the hands of 
the Holy Jesus, without determining any 
thing concerning them, not knowing what 
would befall them to-morrow. He giveth 
me great confidence in his protection, which 
renders me altogether blind, without wishing 
any thing, but being ready for his will in 
every thing." 

Guarded with his perfect confidence, he 
feared nothing, but remained firm and reso- 
lute against all encounters. He walked 



His Hope. 65 

securely in all places at all times, — in the 
streets, in the fields, by day and by night ; 
travelling through woods and forests re- 
puted dangerous, and frequented by robbers, 
without any other defence than his trust in 
God. A friend told him one day, he was 
afraid to walk in the evening in the streets 
of Paris without a sword, and desired his ad- 
vice. He replied that he had left off wear- 
ing a sword a long time, and advised him, 
after he had commended the business to God 
by prayer, to trust in his protection, assur- 
ing himself that his protection over us is 
according to our reliance upon him. 

One day a scaffold on which he stood with 
his workmen fell clown, and hurt several of 
them ; but it moved not him. His spirit re- 
mained in the same evenness as if nothing 
had happened, being settled on Him in 
" whom is no variableness, neither shadow of 
turning." 

These words were found in one of his let- 
ters to his director: " My soul, being armed 



66 



Monsieur De Renty. 



with confidence and love, fears neither the 
devil nor hell, nor all the stratagems of man. 
Neither think I at all on heaven or earth but 
only how to fulfil the will of God in every 
thing." 





CHAPTER VII. 




HIS LOYE OF GOD. 

X HE sentiments which M. De Renty 
had of the love of God are thus ex- 
pressed in a letter to his director : " In 
'& all I read in the Scripture I neither 
understand nor find any thing but this love. 
The very end of the commandment is love 
out of a sincere heart. And this is acquired 
by faith in Christ Jesus, as the apostle ob- 
serves in the following words : ' Faith uniteth 
us to him, whereby we sacrifice our souls and 
bodies through his Spirit ; which conducteth 
us to the complete end of the law, to deliver 
us up to God, and bring him clown to us in 

67 



68 Monsieur De Renty. 

charity, and a gracious inexplicable union ; 
to whom be praise forever. Amen.' " 

Writing to another, he says, " I thank our 
Lord, who hath disposed you to a perfect 
self-denial. This is the waj^ to love ; and 
our love of God is shown not so much in 
receiving gifts and graces from him as in 
forgetting ourselves, in renouncing all things, 
and suffering constantly and courageously 
for him." 

So inflamed was M. De Renty with this 
love, that all his thoughts, words, and works 
were the fruits of it. All his virtues drew 
their original from this: it was the begin- 
ning and motive and end of all. " I cannot 
conceal from you," said he to a friend, " that I 
have a fire in my heart which burns and con- 
sumes without ceasing." And this divine fire 
was so ardent in his soul, that the flames 
thereof often burst forth into his exterior ; 
and he often owned, that, whenever he pro- 
nounced the name of God, he tasted such a 
sweetness as could not be expressed. 






His Love of God. 69 

One of his friends assures us, he has 
often seen him so inflamed with love, that he 
appeared like one beside himself; and that 
he has told him, when these transports were 
upon him, he was ready to cast himself into 
the fire to testify his love to God. One of 
his letters he concludes thus : " I must now 
hold my peace ; yet, when I cease to speak, 
the fire within that consumes me will not let 
me rest. Let us burn then, and burn wholly 
and in every part, for God. Since we have 
no being but by him, why do we not live to 
him ? I speak it aloud, and it would be my 
crown of glory to seal it with my blood." 

To another he writes thus : " I know not 
what your intent was in writing those words, 
c My God and my all ! ' Only you incite 
me thereby to return the same to you and to 
all creatures., ' My God and my all ; my 
God and my all ; my God and my all ! ' Is 
your heart full of it, and think you it possi- 
ble I should be silent on such an invitation ? 
Be it known to you that he is my God and 



70 Monsieur De Renty. 

my all ; and, if you doubt of it, I shall speak 
it a hundred times over. I shall add no 
more ; for any thing else is superfluous to him 
that is truly penetrated with 4 My God and 
my all.' " 

This love of God wrought in him an in- 
credible zeal for his honor, which he thus 
expresses to his director : " One day, being 
transported with an earnest desire to be all 
devoted to God, and all consumed for him, 
I offered up to him all I could, yea, and all 
I could not. I would willingly, if they had 
been mine, have made a deed of gift to him 
of heaven and 6arth ; and, in another way, 
I would gladly have been the lowest of all 
mankind : yea, and, if supported by his 
grace, I could have been content, to advance 
his glory, to have suffered the pains of the 
damned. In this disposition of a calm zeal, 
there is no sort of martyrdom, no degree of 
greatness or littleness, honor or dishonor, 
that passed not through my soul, and that I 
would not readily have embraced for the 



Sis Love of God. 71 

advancement of his glory. It is impossible 
to express one circumstance of what I felt. 
All I could do was to give up my liberty to 
God, writing the deed in paper, and signing 
it with my blood." 

See here the zeal of a man all on fire with 
the love of God ! and the surest proof of 
love, — conformity to his will. This inti- 
mate union of his will with God's, the 
object and end of all his actions, was indeed 
one of his singular graces, as it is the sum of 
all perfection. He wrote thus to one con- 
cerning the Countess of Chatres, with whom 
he had the strictest friendship: "I must own, 
that, during my absence from her, my heart 
was tenderly sensible of her pain. But my 
desire submits to the will of God ; and, when 
that is signified, he gives me grace to obey. 
I was not at Paris, but at Citry, when she 
departed. I was sent for by post, but came 
two hours too late. Entering the town, I 
soon heard the news of her death. Presently 
I fixed myself to the will of God ; whereupon 



12 Monsieur De Renty. 

I found no more alteration in my soul than 
if she had been alive. I see his order in this, 
that I assisted her not at her death, and 
doubt not but he permitted it for her ad- 
vantage." 

Another time he wrote thus : " I have 
these three weeks had a fever, with a deflux- 
ion and an extreme weakness. My frame 
of mind during this condition has been a 
simple adherence to the will of God. I have 
a heart willing and ready to receive any 
afflictions that can befall me. I desire what- 
ever is decreed from above, and beg it with 
all my heart." 

In the year 1641, one of his children, 
whom he tenderly loved, died. When the 
news was brought him, he spoke not one 
word, nor showed the least sign of disturb- 
ance ; his affection to the child yielding to 
his absolute conformity with the will of God. 

At the end of the year 1643, his wife fell 
desperately sick, so that she was given over 
by her physicians, and left speechless and 



His Love of God. 73 

without reason. This affected him in the 
most sensible manner ; and he broke out into 
these words : — 

" I cannot deny but my nature is deeply 
affected with the sense of so great a loss. 
Yet my spirit is filled with so wonderful a 
joy to see myself in such a state as to give 
up and sacrifice to my God a thing so dear 
to me, that, if decency did not forbid it, I 
would give some open testimony of my rea- 
diness thereto." Hereby he evidenced the 
will of God to be so absolutely his, that he 
not only willed whatever God willed, but also 
willed it as God doth, with pleasure and 
satisfaction. But it pleased God to restore 
his wife to her health, with respect, as we 
may believe, to the carriage of his faithful 
servant. 

From this perfect subordination to the will 
of God sprung his admirable tranquillity. 
From this fountain flowed those rivers of 
peace which he possessed in so great perfec- 
tion, that, on the most sudden surprisals, his 



K 



74 Monsieur Be Benty. 

spirit was not altered, nor put into any dis- 
order. So that lie could say from the abun- 
dance of his heart, " I comprehend not that 
thing you call mortification. He who finds 
no resistance in his spirit to any thing is not 
capable of it. Whoso willeth whatsoever 
God willeth, is pleased, whatsoever happens." 
With this love of God was joined so deep 
a reverence of him as often cast him into 
trembling. And this unspeakable respect 
unto God's greatness caused him often to 
walk in the fields bare headed, even in rain, 
or the heat of the sun. And being asked by 
a friend what it was that kept him in that 
constant awe, and how he attained that won- 
derful reverence he bore to God at all times, 
in all places, and in all employments, he an- 
swered, " The sight of his glorious Majesty 
— which continually seems present to me — 
keeps me in exceeding awe with a deep sense 
of his greatness and my own vileness. A 
mote in the sun is little ; but I am far less in 
the presence of God." 



His Love of God. 75 

And sure it is, that this deep sense of his 
own vileness before the majesty of God, well 
becomes not only the greatest of sinners, but 
the holiest of men upon earth. He that 
from a valley beholds the sun when it rises, 
and appears on the point of a high moun- 
tain, may think him that stands above to be 
near it, and almost able to reach it with his 
hand. But the same man, notwithstanding, 
beholds it at a vast distance above his head ; 
and though, in reality, he is nearer than the 
other that stands in the valley, yet the pro- 
portion is so small as scarce deserves to be 
named in respect to the total distance. 

This reverence of God occasioned in him a 
great reverence, likewise, to whatsoever was 
devoted to him ; as, first, to all holy places. 
At his entrance into a church, his demeanor 
was highly modest and serious. He never 
sat down there. He would remain in it as 
long as possibly he could, — sometimes seven 
or eight hours together. If any person spoke 
to him in church, his answer was short : if a 



76 Monsieur De Renty. 

longer was required, he went out and gave 
it. 

He had great respect, also, to holy persons, 
especially to priests ; whom he highly hon- 
ored for their works' sake. Whenever he 
met them, he saluted them with profound 
humility, and in his travels would alight off 
his horse to do it. When they visited him, 
he entertained them with great respect; at 
their going, waiting on them to the gate: 
and, if any dined at his table, he gave them 
the upper hand ; which civility he observed 
to his own chaplain. 

And as he had this reverence for them, so 
had he an earnest desire that they might live 
according to the dignity of their calling. 
When he saw any that did not, his heart 
was melted into sorrow for them, and he 
humbly prostrated himself before the Saviour, 
and begged with tears some apostolic spirits. 
He often said, " Give us, O Lord, our poor 
fishermen, — men simple in appearance, and 
vile in the eyes of men, but great and holy 



His Love of God. 



77 



within, and fit to convert souls by their sanc- 
tity, prayers, and restless labors ! And here- 
in I discover a great mistake ordinary in the 
world, — that outward greatness and pomp is 
the way to keep up men's credit, and make 
them more capable of doing good to their 
neighbors. Oh, no ! It is grace that hath 
power upon the souls ; and a holy and hum- 
ble life that gaineth hearts ! " 





CHAPTER VIII. 




HIS LOYE OF MAST. 

fT was the chief exercise of M. De 
Renty to apply and unite himself to 
the Lord Jesus, and from this union 
^ and example to derive all his virtues, 
and inspire all his works of charity. To 
mould himself after this divine model, 
both in his inward tempers and outward 
behavior, was his constant endeavor. He 
never took his eye from this divine copy, but 
endeavored to draw every line in exact har- 
mony with this likeness, making him his 
perfect original. 

This was the end of all his designs and 

78 



His Love of Man. 79 

cares, particularly that of charity to his 
neighbor ; taking the Saviour as his grand 
exemplar, weighing his affection, and mark- 
ing what he had done and suffered for men ; 
how he sought after and conversed with 
them ; how he instructed, comforted, and en- 
couraged them ; sometimes reproving, some- 
times bearing with their infirmities ; at all 
times carrying them in his bosom, yea, in the 
most intimate enclosure of his heart. 

He weighed well what Christ had declared 
concerning this virtue ; that he had established 
it as the perfection of his law ; had termed it 
peculiarly his own command ; had expressly 
and solemnly bequeathed it to his followers, 
and enforced the execution of it upon them 
by the strongest and most endearing ties ; 
had made this virtue the distinctive character 
of those who were in reality his disciples ; 
had charged us to love our neighbor accord- 
ing to the model, measure, and fashion of his 
love to us. And accordingly he determined, 
as far as he could, to love his neighbor with 



80 Monsieur De JRenty. 

the spirit of his Master. " I sigh " (said he) 
" after my Saviour Jesus, desiring to imitate 
and follow him whither he pleaseth. I be- 
seech you, by your prayers, obtain for me his 
spirit, to be my life, my whole life. Sigh 
and groan for me after my God, that I may 
be wholly for him in his Son, that I may fol- 
low him, and not live but by his Spirit." 

Agreeably to this, he endeavored, in all 
the intercourse he had with men, to unite 
himself most intimately to the Saviour, giv- 
ing himself up as an instrument to be guided 
by his hand in the helping of others, beseech- 
ing him to breathe upon him his spirit of 
love, recommended so much in his word, 
but more in his actions, and to inflame him 
with this sacred fire which he hath kindled 
in his Church, that he might be wholly con- 
sumed with it. He consulted him in all his 
doubts concerning it, begging him to inspire 
what and how and when he should speak 
and act for the good of his neighbor, and 
that in him and by him it might all be done. 



His Love of Man. 81 

He looked upon men not according to their 
natural qualities, their beauty, nobility, rich- 
es, or worldly distinctions, but according to 
their more noble relations, and those common 
to all; viz., as creatures divine, the lively 
images of God, formed to praise and love 
him to all eternity ; as purpled in the blood 
of Jesus, brothers and co-heirs with him, his 
inheritance bought with the price of his life, 
and a thousand pangs, and who therefore 
must be infinitely dear unto him, and most 
tenderly beloved of him. 

In this capacity it was that he beheld men, 
and applied to their necessities ; and hereby, 
as he was highly useful to his neighbor, so he 
did not prejudice, but greatly advantaged him- 
self. He looked upon the image of God and 
Christ in every man. He considered it was 
these that demanded succor of him. And, 
while he was performing with all his might 
whatever was necessary for the souls and 
bodies of the least of his brethren, he be- 
lieved verily that it was God and Christ to 



82 Monsieur De Renty. 

whom he rendered that assistance. And the 
same thought should inspire all who would 
benefit their neighbor without prejudice to 
themselves; otherwise, a man shall sooner 
lose his own soul than lead another to God. 

The charity of this man of God, built on 
such a foundation, was so enlarged that it 
seemed to have no bounds, in that he loved 
not only all Christians, but all men without 
exception. " Thy commandment," says Da- 
vid, " is exceeding broad." His charity had 
the same dimensions, embracing the present 
and absent, domestics and strangers, friends 
and enemies, good and bad ; esteeming all 
according to their degree; speaking (as he 
could) well of all ; doing good to all, and ill 
to none. 

There was no considerable good work of a 
public nature done at Paris, or within a great 
distance of it, in which he had not a great 
share. There was no undertaking, tending 
to the honor of God or good of men, of 
which he was not either the author, pro- 



His Love of Man. 83 

nioter, or finisher; and very often all these 
together. He was present at all the meetings 
of piety ; and of many he was the very soul. 
His correspondence, relating to works of 
charity, public and private, such as the erec- 
tion or perfecting of hospitals, seminaries of 
religion, &c, extended throughout the whole 
kingdom. 

From Caen one writes of him thus : " M. 
de Renty was our support and refuge in the 
execution of all our designs relating to the 
service of God, the saving of souls, and 
the relief of the poor and distressed. To 
him we continually wrote ; and from him we 
received counsel and succor on all occasions. 
Nor have we met with any since his death to 
whom we could have the like recourse in the 
things of God." Another from Dijon writes 
thus : " We cannot but acknowledge the 
great benefit this province has received from 
M. de Renty. Wherever he came, he hath 
wonderfully advanced all works of piety. 
We may truly say that his days were filled 



84 Monsieur De Benty. 

with the fulness of God. Nor do we believe 
he lost one minute of time in which he did 
not either speak or act something for his 
service." 

He applied himself to the necessities of the 
English, the Irish, the captives in Barbary, 
and of the missions into the Levant ; took 
great pains for the support of the hospital at 
Marseilles ; labored much for the relief of 
galley-slaves, and contributed much to the 
advancing the affairs of New France in 
America. He had a- design, likewise, to 
purge all trades and manufactures from the 
corruptions which had grown upon them, so 
that men might live upon them like Chris- 
tians ; which thing he begun and perfected 
in two of them. 

The Scriptures were his most constant 
study. Next the life of our blessed Saviour ; 
to qualify himself for all good works, he 
studied St. Paul's description of charity in 
the thirteenth chapter of his First Epistle to 
the Corinthians. And whoever is possessed 



His Love of Man. 85 

of the virtues there described will not run 
in vain, nor labor in vain. Indeed, the more 
any one is animated with this spirit, the 
more shall he advance holiness in others, 
even though his words be few and ordinary ; 
for our words do not derive their force from 
the mouth that speaks, but from the disposi- 
tion of the heart, and the power of the spirit 
that dwells there. 

To qualify himself to be more extensively 
useful to his neighbor, M. de Renty, to the 
natural abilities God had given him, and to 
the learning he had acquired in his youth, 
had, by his industry, added much to his stock 
of knowledge ; and that not only for his 
own use, but that he might teach it to others, 
and thereby help them. Yea, he abased 
himself to learn the meanest skill which 
might be in any way useful to his neighbor. 
One day in Paris he carried a friend with 
him to a poor man who got his living by 
making wicker-baskets. He there finished a 
basket which he had begun some days before, 



86 Monsieur Be Renty. 

with the design, as soon as he had learned it, 
to teach some poor people in the country to 
make them to help to get their living. He 
then left the basket with the poor man, and 
a piece of money for teaching him. 

Indeed, he took upon him all shapes, 
transformed himself into all figures, conde- 
scended to all things, for the good of his 
neighbor ; all his thoughts, words, and ac- 
tions being wholly cast in the mould of 
charity, which made him say one day, u Me- 
thinks my soul is all charity ; and I am not 
able to express with what ardor and strange 
expansion my heart is renewed in the divine 
life of my Saviour, burning in love to all 
mankind." 

HIS CHARITY TO THE POOR. 

With regard to the poor, M. de Renty 
considered not their habits or outward ap- 
pearance ; but, with the eye of faith, he 
beheld under these Jesus Christ present and 



His Charity to the Poor. 87 

dwelling in them. And as he burned with 
an ardent affection to our Lord, so he loved 
the poor tenderly, relieved them to the 
extent of his ability, and left nothing un- 
attempted for their sakes. 

From the year 1641, he invited two poor 
men twice a week to dinner, viz., on Tuesdays 
and Fridays. But increase of business obliged 
him, five or six years after, to reduce it to 
one day, commonly Thursday, when he in- 
vited three ; and, willing to join spiritual 
alms to bodily necessities, he sought out such 
as seemed most to need spiritual instruction. 
To this end, while at Paris, after his morning 
devotions, he went to St. Anthony's Gate, 
and took such as were newly arrived ; whom, 
courteously saluting, he brought home (in 
winter to the fire), made them sit down, and,, 
with a cordial affection which appeared in 
his whole behavior, instructed them in the 
chief points of Christianity. While they sat 
at table, he served them himself, setting 
before them with his own hands the dishes 



88 Monsieur De Benty. 

brought by his servants and children. After 
dinner he waited on them himself to the 
gate, and dismissed them with an alms. This 
he continued to his death ; and, when he 
could not do it in person, his wife did the 
same to as many poor women. 

Besides many other charities at his own 
house, he endeavored the general relief of 
all the poor in Paris and the parts adjacent ; 
busied himself to understand their wants, 
studied ways of redress, and carefully pur- 
sued them. What he could not accomplish 
himself, he commended to others ; spake for 
them, begged for them, bought necessaries 
for them, labored to establish settled courses 
of living for men and children that were 
destitute, and, when he could not at present 
provide for them abroad, maintained them at 
his own house till he could. 

He was the first to suggest some relief for 
the poor English, driven by persecution out 
of their own country. He engaged persons 
of quality in the purchasing of lands for 



His Charity to the Poor. 89 

their subsistence. He personally undertook . 
the charge of distributing one part of these 
charities. This he performed monthly, going 
to them on foot, and commonly alone. En- 
tering their chamber, he saluted them with 
all tenderness and respect, and gave them 
their allowance wrapped in a paper. 

In all his visits to the poor, after a general 
survey of their wants, he examined in par- 
ticular as well their spiritual as bodily neces- 
sities, and endeavored in the first place to 
mark their inclinations, their passions, their 
ill habits ; what vices were predominant in 
them, and what were their chief infirmities ; 
that, like a prudent physician, he might apply 
fit remedies, and teach them how to make 
a proper use of their poverty. 

As to their temporal necessities, he consid- 
ered the capacity, industry, trade, or employ- 
ment of each. For tradesmen, he considered 
what tools or materials were necessary to set 
them to work. These he provided, either 
redeeming their own, or buying new. He 



90 Monsieur Be Renty. 

then gave them provisions for two or three 
days, and provided them work not only for 
themselves, but also for their wives and 
children. Afterwards he bought some of 
their work, which he bestowed in alms upon 
others, and took orders for the quick sale of 
the rest ; coming to them from time to time 
to see if all went well, and encourage them 
to take pains in doing what they did. 

To these we may add his charity to poor 
prisoners, whom he visited, comforted, and 
relieved, and, when he found it expedient 
for them (which he always first considered), 
used all means for their release. 

There was in Low Normandy one who 
had been a prisoner for several years, and, 
though innocent, was in great extremity. 
Many had endeavored to secure his release, 
but without success, because of a powerful 
adversary. The thing being commended to 
M. De Renty, after full information of the 
case, he committed the prosecution of it to 
his own advocate, made a report of it to 



His Cliarity to the Poor. 91 

the court, and went frequently in person to 
solicit it. 

But notwithstanding, perceiving the poor 
man's cause to hang long, he changed his 
purpose, and wrote to his adversary, offering, 
if the business might be referred to him, to 
take a journey into Normandy immediately. 
When he came to the town, he went directly 
to the prison ; and after an exhortation to the 
prisoners, seconded by his alms, he told the 
poor man his design, and exhorted him to 
pray to God for a blessing on his endeavors, 
and to rest in hope, that, by some means or 
other, he should shortly be delivered. 

He then went to the other's house, whence 
he returned to the prison for information on 
some difficulties that occurred. Finding all 
the prisoners together at their usual devo- 
tions, he waited till they had done. Having 
then received information, he went back to 
the other, with whom he came to such an 
agreement, that this poor man, after a world 
of misery during nine years' imprisonment, 



92 Monsieur Be Benty. 

was at length set at liberty. He maintained 
him eight days at his own house, advising 
and exhorting him every evening ; and at his 
departure persuaded him to go and see his 
former adversary, whom he now found as 
governable and friendly as before he had 
been severe. 



HIS CHARITY TO THE SICK. 

If M. De Renty's charity to the poor was 
as great as has been described, it was still 
greater to such poor as were sick. He 
was not content to assist these in one or 
two ways ; but they found in him, and 
often in one visit, a benefactor, a physician, 
apothecary, surgeon, a pastor, friend, and 
servant. 

In the year 1641 he learned not only to 
let blood, but several parts of surgery. He 
acquainted himself likewise with the manner 
of compounding most sorts of medicines, 
and consulted a physician, by whom he 



His Charity to the Sick. 93 

was instructed in the principal methods of 
administering it. Whenever he went abroad, 
he had with him a surgeon's box, and pow- 
ders for the cure of most ordinary diseases ; 
which he used with great dexterity and with 
equal prudence, never advancing beyond his 
knowledge. 

In his visits to the sick, he never shunned 
any service necessary for them and in his 
power to perform, — as making their beds, 
helping them to bed, making their fire, set- 
ting in order their little household matters ; 
hoping thereby to win their affections, and 
draw them to God with greater facility. 

In every family he took an opportunity to 
inquire whether God was served there, and 
whether any quarrels or differences were 
among them ; which he took care to make up 
without delay. And he never left any with- 
out providing for all their necessities, which 
he took notice of with incredible diligence, 
sweetness, and respect ; dispensing with other 
business, that he might have time to hear all 
their complaints. 



94 Monsieur De Benty. 

Neither did he only visit the sick; but they 
also sought him, and would find him out 
whenever he came, if they were able to go 
abroad. The sick, the weak, the lame, or 
otherwise infirm, flocked to him from all 
quarters. He might often be seen surrounded 
by them ; some requesting medicines, some 
alms, and some his counsel. He treated all, 
as a true disciple of his great Master, with 
the like diffusive charity, and stood in the 
midst of them with the like goodness and 
patience, endeavoring to do good and to 
minister comfort to all. 

Nor did his charity decline the care of 
those diseases which nature cannot behold 
without horror and aversion. During his 
stay at Dijon, he was informed of one, who, 
having been among a company of soldiers, 
was left by them in so noisome a condition, 
that none would come near her, and the per- 
son where she lodged was going to turn her 
out of doors. He went instantly to the 
house, persuaded them to keep her there, 



His Zeal for Salvation. 95 

and hired a woman to attend her. Then he 
provided her proper medicine and nourish- 
ment, which he brought her with his own 
hands, in the mean time reading to her 
every day, instructing and comforting her. 
By this means, he at length not only retrieved 
her from the jaws of death, but induced her 
to spend the rest of her life in a virtuous and 
Christian manner. 

HIS ZEAL EOR THE SALVATION OE HIS 
NEIGHBOR. 

M. De Renty, being continually inflamed 
with the love of God, sought ways, and used 
all possible means, to make him more uni- 
versally known and loved by all men, pre- 
paring them for this world and the world to 
come. And in this his zeal knew no bounds. 
It extended not only to all France, but to all 
the world : insomuch that he said to an inti- 
mate friend, " I am ready to serve all men, 
not excepting one, and to lay down my life 



96 Monsieur Be Renty. 

for any one." He earnestly desired to en- 
lighten with the knowledge of God, and 
inflame with his love, the whole world ; of 
which Paris being as it were an epitome, 
he went through all the streets of that 
vast city, searching out what he could 
remove or bring in for the glory of God, 
and salvation of souls. And the same spirit 
which moved him hereto blessed his endeav- 
ors to rectify what was amiss, and to strength- 
en what was right. This he did in so many 
ways, that most men would think it impossi- 
ble. But what cannot a man do who is 
zealous, disinterested, and full of God ? 

He performed personally whatever he could, 
not sparing any pains, nor losing one mo- 
ment ; and, where his power fell short, he 
engaged others : and in all places he labored, 
as much as in him lay, to induce such as 
desired to follow Christ to join together, and 
assist one another in working out both their 
own and their neighbor's salvation. For this 
purpose he established societies at Caen, at 



His Zeal for Salvation. 97 

Amines, at Dijon, and in several parts of 
Burgundy, who, being animated by a true 
zeal for God, were blessed with unexpected 
success. 

To arm one thus engaged against the diffi- 
culties to be encountered, he wrote to him 
thus : — 

"lam very sensible of the present storms 
that you endure ; though there is no reason 
why men should alarm you thus, seeing they 
have no cause of reproach from your design, 
nor have you done any thing against the gos- 
pel : yet I do not wonder at these crosses. 
'Tis sufficient to know that you desire to 
follow Jesus Christ : therefore you must 
reckon contradiction to be your portion in 
these days of your flesh. Only be firm in 
your confidence in our Lord, suffering none 
of these storms to trouble you, or to obscure 
that light which hath moved you to and 
guarded you in this business. God deliver 
you from the reasonings of flesh and blood, 
which at such times are apt to multiply upon 

7 



98 Monsieur De Benty. 

us ! Be assured, that, if you hearken not to 
them, God will manifest himself unto you : 
he will comfort and fortify you in faith and 
in experience of the gift of his Holy Spirit." 

To another he wrote thus : " Blessed for- 
ever be the holy Jesus for the good begin- 
ning of those you mention ! If the other had 
a little more courage to break her fetters, it 
would be a great step ; and surely there 
needs not so much deliberation to give up 
ourselves to him, although he be 'to the Jews 
a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolish- 
ness.' Not that God hath any need of our 
good parts or excellent qualities, who com- 
monly confounds the wisdom of the wise by 
little things which he chooseth. Blessed be 
that littleness which is accounted weakness, 
and yet overthroweth all the power and 
prudence of the world ! " 

Passing one day by the Hospital of St. 
Gervase, and hearing it was devoted to the 
lodging of poor travellers, he desired leave 
of the superior to instruct them in the even- 



His Zeal for Salvation. 99 

ing when they were met together. And this 
he did from that time, every night, coming 
thither on foot, and commonly alone, summer 
and winter. After instructing them, he 
joined with them in prayer, which he con- 
cluded with his alms. And this he continued 
many years, till some churchmen, moved by 
his example, undertook the work. 

His tenderness of heart to these poor peo- 
ple was exceeding great, joined with such 
humility as cannot easily be expressed. 
When he met any one at the hospital, he 
saluted him with great respect, put him 
before him, and talked with him bareheaded. 
If any kneeled to him, he did the like to 
them, and continued on his knees till they 
rose first. One of them, observing him dili- 
gently, and knowing him to be the lord of 
the place where he himself lived, was deeply 
affected at the sight, and came and fell at his 
feet. M. De Renty did the like to him, and 
continued in that posture a long time, resolv- 
ing not to rise before the poor man. 



100 Monsieur De Renty. 

Going one day to visit the holy place of 
Monmatre, after his prayers said in the 
church, he retired into a desolate part of the 
mountain, near a little spring. There he 
kneeled down to pray, after which he dined 
on a piece of bread and a draught of water. 
After dinner he took out his Testament, and 
read a chapter on his knees, bare headed, 
with extraordinary reverence. Just then 
came a poor man, saying his prayers. M. De 
Renty rose up to salute him, and entered into 
a discourse with him concerning God, and 
with such remarkable power, that the poor 
man, striking his breast, fell down upon the 
ground to adore the great God. Immedi- 
ately after came a poor maid to draw water 
at the well, whom he asked what she was. 
She answered, " A servant." — u But do you 
know," said he, " you are a Christian, and to 
what end you was created ? " Whereupon he 
took occasion so to instruct her, that, con- 
fessing she had never before thought of the 
end of her creation, she promised from thence 



His Zeal for Salvation. 101 

forth deeply to consider and seriously to 
pursue it. 

In his first return from Dijon, he stopped 
three or four times in the way to instruct 
poor passengers ; and once went out of the 
road to show some laborers in the field how 
to sanctify the work in which they were 
engaged. 

A young maid in Paris, having been very 
cruelly used by her uncle, became greatly 
disordered ; and in her fury she accused our 
Saviour as the cause of her misery in aban- 
doning her to such a man. In this horrible 
condition she received the sacrament several 
times in a day, on purpose to do despite to 
the Saviour, and provoke him to complete 
her destruction. M. De Renty was no sooner 
informed of this than he hasted to find her 
out ; as he did, after eight days' search, in 
the very act of communing. He immediately 
conveyed her thence, and took so great care 
both of her soul and body, that she returned 
to herself, and gave ample testimony of her 
repentance. 



102 Monsieur De Benty. 

As the design of advancing the salvation 
of men is attended with much labor and suf- 
fering, it is necessary for him that undertakes 
it to fortify himself with courage and pa- 
tience. Both these were eminently charac- 
teristic of M. De Renty; being in the first 
place, full of courage, resolute, and laborious ; 
employing his body as if he had two more in 
reserve when that was spent ; despatching 
more business in one half-hour than others 
did in many days. He was very bold in 
entering upon difficulties, and quick in extri- 
cating himself from them. 

A lady who had left much to religious 
objects made him her executor. Being 
informed that her friends — .men of eminent 
power — were much displeased with her 
choice, he replied, " I never moved her to 
bestow any of her estate this way ; but, since 
her piety has prompted her to it, I shall not 
be dismayed with any power that shall oppose 
it. My care is to perform her will ; and for 
other things I take no thought." 



Eis Zeal for Salvation. 103 

Seeing one (ky some gentlemen fighting, 
he threw himself between their swords, lay- 
ing hold on those who seemed most outra- 
geous. At first they quarrelled with him ; 
but in a short time were friends, both with 
him and with one another. 

His zeal was accompanied, secondly, with 
unparalleled patience. This is a virtue highly 
requisite for him that would save the souls 
of men, seeing he must endeavor to win 
their hearts, at which he is to make his first 
entrance ; not following his own will or incli- 
nations, but theirs ; becoming all things to 
all men ; waiting long for their conversion ; 
and attending, without being tired and dis- 
couraged, the favorable moments wherein 
they may yield to his motives. He must, 
like this holy man, not only be willing to 
endure hunger, thirst, heat, cold, wet, weari- 
ness, and other outward pains inseparably 
attendant on employments of this nature, 
but also the importunities, complaints, pas- 
sions, the repulses, the contempts, and in- 



104 Monsieur De Renty. 

juries that are continually to be expected in 
them. 

While he was employed in instructing the 
poor travellers in the Hospital of St. Gervase, 
a man who was settled there, looking upon 
it as an intrusion into his office, came to him, 
as he was in the midst of the poor, and, with 
many injurious and reproachful words, for- 
bade him to come any more. M. De Kenty, 
having heard him without any emotion, re- 
plied, the poor people had much need of 
instruction ; and, since he would not be at the 
pains of it himself, he prayed him not to 
hinder one that would. This did not satisfy 
him at all ; but he came four daj r s together 
to drive out M. De Renty, interrupting him 
as soon as he began. But he still received 
him with the same spirit, and at length over- 
came evil with good. 

One day he visited a person, who, upon a 
groundless suspicion, had cruelly used his 
wife ; who, understanding his business, en- 
tertained him very coarsely, — using much 



His Zeal for Salvation. 105 

opprobrious language, lifting up his hand to 
strike him, and offering to thrust him out of 
doors. M. De Renty replied not one word, 
but, after some time, drew near again, em- 
braced him, and accosted him with such 
soft language, that he was persuaded at 
length to go to confession (which he had not 
done in twelve years before), and to be fully 
reconciled to his wife ; insomuch that he 
lived and died a good Christian. 

Another time, visiting a poor old man 
who was sick, he began, as usual, to speak 
of spiritual things ; but the old man, instead 
of listening, fell into a passion, telling him 
he understood those things better than he. 
M. De Renty replied that he would be glad 
to be instructed ; and after a great deal of 
patience and attention, taking advantage 
from somo things in the weak discourse, to 
convince, and inform him better, he pro- 
ceeded so happily, that the rest of his days 
he led a truly Christian life. 

His patience in bearing with the faults and 



106 Monsieur Be Renty. 

imperfections of others, as it was truly ex- 
emplary, so it never took away or weakened 
his desire to correct them, for which he 
only waited a proper occasion. When he 
intended to reprove another, he commonly 
commenced by first accusing himself in 
order to prepare them by his example. 
Having such an intention, he began a dis- 
course on the frankness with which Chris- 
tians ought to tell one another the truth, for 
want of which we grow gray in our vices, 
and often carry them with us to our graves, 
saying, he should hold himself extremely 
obliged to any who would show him that 
kindness. His friend, finding his heart 
exceedingly softened, besought him to deal 
freely and plainly with him in telling him 
whatsoever he saw amiss in him; which 
thing he then did. 

But his patience did not in the least 
diminish that fortitude which is so requisite 
in the things of God for the good of our 
neighbor and for the proper preserving of 



His Zeal for Salvation. 107 

our just authority. He knew that severity 
must be used sometimes, especially when we 
have to do with stubborn offenders, and 
accordingly advised a friend concerning a 
third person, " Take heed of humbling your- 
self before that man : the abasing yourself 
in this case would both prejudice him and 
the cause of God. Reprove him severely 
and roundly." 

And not in these instances only, but in all 
others, his zeal was accompanied with both 
freedom and prudence ; for though his 
humility often concealed many of his inward 
graces and outward actions, yet many of 
these did his zeal bring to light, where he 
judged it necessary for the glory of God or 
the good of his neighbor. 

Writing to a virtuous lady, he says, — 
" Give me leave to speak my thoughts of 
that liberty we ought to use in communicat- 
ing freely the gifts of God bestowed upon 
us to such persons as may reap fruit from 
them ; not stifling them in ourselves, where- 



108 Monsieur Be Renty. 

by we obstruct a second fruit, which God 
expects from his graces. We should con- 
sider ourselves set in the world as a crystal, 
which, placed in the middle of the universe, 
would give free passage to all the light 
which it receives from above : so ought we 
to impart all the talents we receive, and this 
without disguise, or the least claim of pro- 
priety. 

" Further : as the crystal, if several torches 
were set under it, would transmit the beams 
of them all towards heaven, so whatever 
honors or commendations we receive from 
below should freely pass through us iip to 
God ; for God hath therefore bestowed upon 
us such things as are praiseworthy ; not that 
the praise thereof should rest upon us, but 
that it may pass through us to him, that he 
may be blessed and praised in all things." 

Yet his zeal, though free, was not so indis- 
creet as to be its own herald upon every 
appearance of doing good, but was very 
circumspect in weighing all circumstances. 



His Zeal for Salvation. 109 

Accordingly, in the same letter, he gives this 
wise advice touching the order and measure 
which are necessary to be observed in this 
communication. 

" To some we must lay open our hearts 
freely and exactly ; to others more reserved- 
ly ; to others we should be altogether locked 
up, concealing from them what we see no 
disposition in them to make a good use of." 

Zeal, indeed, should be always attended 
with prudence, to consider things well, and 
execute them in the best manner ; to prevent 
mischiefs, or redress them with as much of 
sweetness and as little acrimony as possible ; 
and in desperate cases, or where the cure 
would prove worse than the disease, to 
suffer and pass them over : some souls hav- 
ing defects, as it were, incorrigible, which 
God permits to perfect them by humility, 
and others, likewise, that have an intercourse 
with them, by patience and charity. 

One great point of prudence requisite in a 
zealous man is neither to hurt his body by 



110 Monsieur De Renty. 

too much labor, nor his mind with too much 
business. As to the latter of these, M. De 
Renty took especial care so to manage all 
his works of charity, that his piety might 
not be hindered, but advanced thereby, indis- 
pensably performing all his exercises of 
devotion ; and, while he conversed most 
with his neighbor, he reserved a considerable 
part, both of the day and night, for convers- 
ing with God. As to the other, he thus ex- 
pressed himself to a clergyman who had 
impaired his health by extreme labor : — 

" Give me leave, sir, to tell you plainly, 
that you should not impose too much upon 
yourself, lest, for want of moderation, you 
render yourself altogether unserviceable. 
The enemy usually takes no small advantage 
of such free and well-disposed natures. You 
are not your own, but a debtor to all men. 
Preserve yourself, therefore, not by indulging 
your body, but by laying upon it no more 
than it is able to bear." 

Being at Citry in the latter end of the 



His Zeal for Salvation. Ill 

year 1642, he had a strong impression upon 
his mind, that, at his return to Paris, he 
should find a new employment among the 
poor, and be much occupied therein. Ac- 
cordingly, two days after his return thither, 
some persons came to advise with him about 
a plan for relieving all such poor in the 
city as were ashamed to beg. He under- 
took to visit a fourth part of them, and to 
assist them according to their necessities, — 
an employment sufficient to take up the 
whole time of one man, which yet he per- 
formed, notwithstanding the multitude of his 
other occupations ; so that we must say, 
without special assistance he could not have 
done and suffered what he did. But God, 
who hath limited our strength of body, can 
increase it when and how he pleaseth. 

Sometimes he received beforehand only a 
present impulse of something to be clone, 
without any particular discovery of what it 
was, — as when he was much pressed in 
spirit to go to Pontois, without understand- 



112 Monsieur De Renty. 

ing any reason for it ; yet, believing it to be 
the call of God, he immediately undertook 
the journey, where, unexpectedly, he met 
with a nobleman of great quality, who had 
come from a far-distant province on purpose 
to be instructed by M. De Renty how to 
serve God ; which he had, till then, little 
known, and less practised. 

Though this humble servant of God had 
a remarkable faculty for assisting all, yet was 
he more eminently useful to some particular 
persons for the healing their souls, and lead- 
ing them on in the narrow way of perfection. 
I shall mention only one, — the Countess of 
Chatres, who being a remarkably worldly 
person (as are most young ladies of her 
quality), it pleased God to inspire her with 
a desire to ask advice of M. De Renty. This 
he gave her with such happy success, that he 
himself was astonished at the result. In 
less than a year, she was so perfectly disen- 
gaged from all those little conveniences and 
accommodations which ladies frequently per- 



His Zeal for Salvation. 113 

suacle themselves are absolutely necessary, 
that one offering her something of this kind, 
which she was formerly fond of, she an- 
swered, " I thank God I have quitted this, 
and many more things, for the love of God, 
and yet find no want at all." 

God gave him light to discern her proper 
way how to renounce herself, and advance 
in the paths of solid virtue, and to support 
her in great inward afflictions ; and she, on 
her part, resigned herself under God to his 
guidance, and forced herself to put his ad- 
vice in execution, — a thing very essential in 
those who would make use of the instruc- 
tions of others to good purpose. 

Though this happy intercourse, accom- 
panied with such signal blessings, had con- 
tracted a strict and perfect friendship between 
them, yet Le was very wary and reserved in 
his conversation with her ; visiting her only 
when the work of God required it, and 
neither speaking nor staying with 4 her any 
longer than was strictly necessary. This she 

8 



114 Monsieur Be Renty. 

thought a little harsh, and complained of it 
to a friend whom she knew to have some in- 
fluence with him ; saying, " M. De Kenty ex- 
tremely mortifies me with his civilities and 
reservedness. I have great need to see him 
often, and yet cannot obtain it. Nay, when 
we are together, he will not sit down, except 
when I am sick, or not able to stand any 
longer, and always with his hat in his hand. 
I beg you xo tell him what, out of respect, I 
dare not, what inquietude I suffer to see his 
behavior such toward me who ought to be 
continually under his feet." 

The person acquainting him with this, he 
answered, " I proceed in this manner because 
my duty to God and to the Countess of 
Chatres requires it. My Saviour obliges me 
to converse with her ; but I must do no more 
than what is necessary, and so retire, for 
which this posture is most convenient. If 
we sat down, we should forget ourselves, and 
talk more than is necessary, and, perhaps, 
pass on to things unprofitable : therefore we 
ought both to stand upon our guard." 



Hi$ Zeal for Salvation. 115 

Those who undertake the conduct of 
souls ought seriously to consider this an- 
swer, and to be fully persuaded that the 
business does not consist in speaking much 
to them, but in disposing them to speak to 
God, and in making them fit for God to 
speak to them. 

In the year 1647, having visited one 
afflicted with great pains, he thus writes to 
his director : — 

" I have been with the person you know 
of, and have told her what I thought suitable 
to her condition. I acquainted her how we 
ought to lay this sure foundation ; that we 
are nothing but weakness and misery itself ; 
and that God, from this insufficiency of our- 
selves to all good, means to extract humility 
and diffidence of ourselves, obliging us there- 
by to fly to his Son to find strength in him, 
and a remedy for all our miseries. 

" As concerning myself, I have not much 
to say ; only I find within myself, by the 
mercy of God, a great tranquillity in his 



116 Monsieur Be Benty. 

presence, through the spirit of Jesus Christ, 
and such an inward experience of eternal 
life as I am not able to express. Yet I find 
myself so naked and barren, that I wonder 
at the condition I am in, and by which I 
discourse. In my converse with this person, 
I begun my speech, not knowing how to 
pursue it. After the second sentence, I had 
not the least foresight of what should be the 
third ; and so of the rest. Not but that I 
seem to have a perfect knowledge of the 
things I speak, in such a manner as I am 
capable of it. But I only utter what is 
given me ; and, in the same way as it is com- 
municated, I communicate it to others." 





CHAPTER IX. 




HIS OUTWAKD BEHAVIOR AND BUSINESS 
CONDUCT. 

DE RENTY, being sensible that even 
our outward behavior is of great con- 
sequence in the service of our neigh- 
bor (being that which makes the first 
impression upon them), did whatever he could 
for the regulation of his manner ; keeping his 
gestures, motions, looks, and all parts of his 
conversation, in such harmony as he judged 
fittest to draw his neighbor to God. 

He was very modest, always calm, and in- 
violably uniform. " Among all the things I 
observed in M. De Renty," says one of his 

117 



118 Monsieur Be Renty. 

intimate friends, " and what first affected me, 
was his rare modesty and great evenness of 
behavior. There was something in his 
looks which carried so much reverence in it, 
one might easily judge he was always actu- 
ally in the presence of God." 

In every condition or employment he was 
the same in his looks, gestures, words, and 
actions, — whether alone or in company, with 
rich or poor, strangers or friends, before his 
children or servants, yea, even before his 
footman, in the country or town, at the table, 
and everywhere. 

And such constant equality was the more 
observable, because of his natural disposition, 
which was not slow, heavy, and phlegmatic, 
but choleric, hot, and active. But the grace 
of God, and the exact and perpetual care he 
had over himself, had wholly inverted his 
nature, and brought him to a behavior, as 
well as temper, directly opposite to those 
which he naturally possessed. 

Another of his friends writes of him 
thus : — 



His Outward Behavior. 119 

" That which pleased me most in him was 
his great recollection and intimate union with 
God, attended with such a wonderful peace of 
mind as shone forth in his countenance, and 
begot a kind of devotion in his beholders. 
This union, methought, was ever the same, 
without any sign of distraction or levity, or 
any word not necessary ; no complaisance 
or human regard ever forcing him to scatter 
his spirit. Not but that he was full of 
civility, but still so as to look more within 
himself than without." 

And indeed this continual presence of 
God so wholly absorbed his spirit, that no 
unusual accident or object, or any thing rare 
or extraordinary, could divert him. I never 
saw him admire any thing in the world, nor 
fix his eyes upon any curiosity whatever. 
And his gait in the streets was so recollected, 
modest, and equal, without gazing on any 
thing, that a man might see that Jesus Christ 
was his way, his employment, and his all. 

In his speech, by choice as well as by 



120 Monsieur De Renty. 

nature, he was very explicit. In whatever 
company it concerned him to speak, he did 
so in his course, with a composed demeanor, 
and words few, but material. He was never 
known forward or eager to speak, or, in 
speaking, to do it with a higher tone than 
ordinary. If he gave an account of any 
business, he did it so briefly, and in words so 
pertinent, that it was a very hard matter to 
find one that spoke better, and yet less, than 
he. 

Things that were unprofitable, or the news 
of the times, were never the subject of his 
discourse, but always something pertaining 
to the kingdom of God. And, when the 
conversation was diverted to worldly things, 
he either took leave of the company, or stole 
away quietly. 

And, when he talked even of good things, 
it was with care and moderation, saying, 
" There is much need of sparingness and 
sobriety when we speak even of the things 
of God, lest it turn to no good account ; " and 



His Outward Behavior. 121 

that it was a great trouble to him, when 
among serious persons, to hear them often 
spend precious time in talking of virtue at 
large, and to find them departing from such 
conferences with dry, empty, and dissipated 
spirits. 

As to his business-conduct, his method 
was seriously to consider things before any 
resolution was formed ; and if, after his own 
opinion was given, he found another's to be 
better, he readily yielded his own. After he 
had resolved, he was prompt, firm, and con- 
stant in the execution of it. But some- 
times, when he had gone through the diffi- 
culties of a design, he left it to a friend to 
finish ; not out of inconstancy, but to gain 
time for undertaking more, as well as to 
avoid the honor of it. 

In all affairs that concerned the service of 
God, he had an immovable constancy ; and, 
besides the force of his words, there ap- 
peared in his face an extraordinary assur- 
ance (though his ordinary deportment was 



122 Monsieur De Renty. 

always sweet and quiet) which particularly- 
appeared in all meetings, whereby he mani- 
fested such a spirit, that those who beheld 
him felt themselves struck with awful 
regard. His proposals generally carried so 
much light and force in them, that all were 
constrained to acquiesce in his determina- 
tion. But, if any disputed his reasons, he 
knew how to enforce them; and if they 
chanced to make another reply (a thing 
which very rarely happened), he said noth- 
ing more : but his very silence, and the 
steadiness of his countenance, restrained any 
further dispute. At the close of the meet- 
ing, he would go to the person with whom 
he differed, and ask his pardon, assuring 
him that what he aimed at was not to 
make good his opinion, but to advance the 
cause of God : in all other things he was 
ready to yield to every one. 

But of all things he was careful not to 
overcharge himself with business, to the 
prejudice of his piety. He knew that out- 



His Outward Behavior. 123 

ward employments, even the most holy, may 
be hinclerances to inward holiness : where- 
fore he was careful not to overburden him- 
self with them, and very vigilant that they 
should not distract and dissipate his mind, 
nor secularize his soul, but serve only as 
means to elevate, and unite him more to 
God. 

And God so blessed him therein, that, in 
the multitude of business, he was still in a 
continual recollection. A familiar friend 
asking him, whether, in his multiplicity of 
employments, he observed his usual two 
hours of prayer, he answered, " When I 
can, I keep three hours, sometimes four or 
five : but, when occasion offers to serve my 
neighbor, I easily quit them ; for God of his 
mercy hath given me the grace to be insepa- 
rably with him, even in the crowd of busi- 
ness." To the same purpose he wrote to his 
director, " I continue my devotion out of 
the time and place of prayer, even in the 
midst of converse and business ; and I tell 



124 Monsieur Be Benty. 

you sincerely, though I perform every thing 
so ill, yet I find little difference of times for 
prayer, being recollected continually." And 
the same might be gathered (as was observed 
before) from his modesty and composed 
countenance, clearly evidencing that •his soul 
was wholly and constantly in application to 
God, from whom he drew light and strength 
for the conduct of all his business ; of which 
he thus wrote to his director, " My recollec- 
tion hinders no business at all, but furthers it. 
Without it, I should have a solicitous desire 
of doing all myself : whereas I now act in a 
most calm way, in which I have no share ; 
for it is our Lord that doth all." In another 
letter he writes thus, " Finding myself one 
day much burthened with variety of busi- 
nesses, I had a desire to draw off my mind 
wholly ; and at the same instant it was done. 
Since that time, they create me no trouble ; 
and I despatch them more readily without 
thinking of them. This grace hath been 
often renewed in me (although in several 



His Outward Behavior. 125 

manners), winch. I acknowledge to be very 
great, because it preserves me disengaged, 
even in the multiplicity of business." 

If, after he had done his part, any design 
failed, he rested well satisfied. On such 
an occasion he thus wrote to a friend : " We 
may take up good designs, and God often 
inspires them; yet, when he is pleased to 
permit a contrary event, we must adore his 
secret will, which brings more of mercy in 
the crossing of them than if they had suc- 
ceeded. We should always be jealous over 
our spirit, that it fix not upon any thing." 
And again : " Our Lord has his designs, 
which he effects by such means as we would 
not at all make choice of. The reason is, 
because he would break our wills, and abate 
our dependences upon earth : therefore he 
often crosses our best undertakings, being 
more jealous of the sacrifice of our hearts 
than any thing else, how specious so ever." 

I cannot better conclude this chapter than 
with a letter written to his director on this 
subject : — 



126 Monsieur De Eenty. 

" For these three or four months I have 
been, as it were, continually employed in out- 
ward works; as removing from place to 
place, new building a church, taking care of 
the sick, reconciling differences, conferring 
with all sorts of people* Yesterday hearing 
those words of the gospel read, ' Thou art 
troubled about many things,' it was said to 
my heart, ' Thou art not troubled about 
many things,' giving me to understand that 
the things we are employed upon according 
to the will of God do not create us that 
trouble, and that Martha was not reproved 
for doing the work, but for doing it too soli- 
citously ; our Saviour intimating to her that 
no business should be done with inordinate 
agitation of spirit: since our great business 
is to hear the eternal word, and act nothing 
with disturbance, but all in peace by his 
Spirit. 

" I received hereby a great support in the 
performance of these petty exterior offices, 
and made no difficulty at all to yield myself 



His Outward Behavior. 127 

up to this holily-disordered divine order. 
At the same time I enjoyed such a sensible 
impression of God, yet excelling all sense, 
that, if I had been thrown like a bowl, I 
could never have lost the sight of my God. 
Our Lord turns this bowl in a strange man- 
ner, even as it pleaseth him. And these 
several turnings are all for the soul's advan- 
tage, whereby she is fashioned for every 
occasion, that she may do nothing for or by 
herself, but all for God, and according to 
him. 

" I see, likewise, that one whom God em- 
ploys in these low affairs, if he follow them 
with the same fidelity, is as acceptable to 
God as one that is employed in the most 
noble functions. Will nothing please you 
but to convert worlds ? You shall be content 
to carry stones, and sometimes to sit still 
and do nothing. You are then to offer the 
sacrifice of patience ; and I believe it is a 
thousand times more rare to find a soul thus 
faithful in patience, and content to do no 



128 Monsieur De Renty. 

more than God would have him, than faithful 
in actions that appear abroad. 

" I have one word more to tell you, which 
is, that I am really ashamed and confounded 
that I do no more for God ; which, indeed, 
with the sense of my unfitness for any thing 
that is good, would work me much torment, 
did I not consider he is all-sufficient, and 
does with us as he pleaseth." 





CHAPTER X. 




OF HIS DEATH, 

[N the 11th of April, 1649, he found 
himself very ill, and, having concealed 
his sickness five days, was then con- 
strained to take his bed. He endured 
great pains in every part of his body. His 
mind also became so much affected, that he 
declared, if God had not assisted him against 
the ravings of his imagination, he should 
have spoken more extravagantly than any 
madman. There was much, he said, in 
such a condition to humble him ; but it was 
the duty of a sinner to honor God in all con- 
ditions wherein he should place him. 

9 129 



130 Monsieur De Renty. 

During these severe pains and torments, 
and during the whole course of his sickness, 
it is said his ordinary employment consist- 
ed in affectionate elevations of his soul to 
God, in thoughts and words of blessing, 
praise, and submission to whatsoever was 
laid upon him, and of meekness, and per- 
fect obedience to all that attended and had 
the care of him, with such a humble and 
contented spirit, that he thought all well 
done, though sometimes it was otherwise. 

His patience never gave way to any com- 
plaint. And when his attendant — who was 
of the hospital of charity, with whom he had 
visited so many poor and sick — implored 
him to declare his pain, " O sister ! " he said, 
" how does the love of God wipe away all 
pain ! The servants of God suffer nothing." 
Another friend asking if his pain was not 
great, he answered, " No." The other 
replied, he thought it was. "It is true," 
said he, " that I am much clogged with my 
disease ; but I feel it not, because I do not 
think of it." 



Of his Death. 131 

Being urged to take some sweet things, lie 
refused, saying, " These make little for life, 
or for death." Yet he refused not medicine, 
but took it with a cheerful countenance, 
though it was very bitter, and he had great 
difficulty in swallowing. Indeed, when one 
told him of another medicine which had 
done great cures, he answered, " Patience is 
a sovereign remedy ; " intimating his unwill- 
ingness to try it. Yet, when it was brought, 
he took it without any reluctance. 

His sickness increased more and more, yet 
he never called for any thing to refresh him ; 
and when they had forced clean sheets and a 
pillow upon his bed, which he had before 
refused, he said, " Lo ! here lies a gentleman 
at his ease." 

Feeling some joy arise in him upon the 
sight of a person of his acquaintance with 
whom he had held a strict correspondence in 
spiritual things, who came out of the coun- 
try on purpose to visit him, he immediately 
repeated thrice over, with great fervor, " I 
desire nothing more but God." 



132 Monsieur De Benty. 

Reflecting on the poor, — the constant ob- 
jects of his tenderest care, he said to his 
wife, " I recommend the poor to you. Will 
not you have a great care of them ? You 
will perform it better than I. Fear nothing ; 
for what you give to them will not lessen the 
rest." 

The greater part of the first week of his 
illness, and some part of the second likewise, 
was spent by him in works of mercy, ap- 
pointing of alms, and giving orders for 
letters to be written into several provinces, 
about business of charity with which he 
stood charged, and of which he gave an 
exact account. 

Many persons of quality coming to visit 
him., he received them with much civility, but 
not without some concern, because most of 
these visits were attended with discourse of 
worldly things. " They come hither," said 
he, " to talk philosophy, of which I have no 
need." At another time he said, " A Chris- 
tian should talk little." 



Of Ms Death. 133 

A lady of great piety coming to visit him 
said, " Sir, I would with all my heart lay 
down my life to save yours." He replied 
with a cheerful look, and eyes uplifted to 
heaven, " To die is not to be lost. Our con- 
versation and union will hereafter be more 
near and intimate." She said, " But, sir, if 
it pleased God to restore your health, and 
continue you longer with us, do not you 
desire it? St. Martin desired to live upon 
these terms." He answered, " O madam ! 
there is no comparison between a saint and a 
sinner. The will of God be done." 

The third day of his sickness he desired 
that his director might be sent for. And, 
being asked if he found himself worse, he 
answered, " No ; but, in a business of this 
consequence, it is not safe to delay for fear 
of a surprisal, the judgment and memory 
being both so subject to decay." The next 
day he made his confession ; the day after he 
confessed again, and almost every day till his 
death. 



134 Monsieur Be Benty. 

The pastor of his parish having adminis- 
tered to him the holy communion, and ob- 
serving his deep silence (not speaking one 
word, but only with profound humility, 
" My God, my God, pardon me ; I am a 
great sinner ! ") he asked him the reason 
why he spake so little, and did not apply 
himself to those who were well pleased to 
hear him. " It is not fitting, 9 ' said he, " to 
speak in the presence of him whom I have 
received, nor take up any room in those 
hearts which ought to be filled only with 
God." He added, " My spirit is now applied 
to that joy which a creature ought to have 
to see himself upon the point of being re- 
united to his first principle and his last end." 

The same day, after dinner, one said to him, 
it was fit to use some diversion from his seri- 
ous thoughts ; the physicians judging his dis- 
ease to have much of melancholy in it. To 
whom he replied, " I never had any joy com- 
parable to that I have felt this day." Being 
asked for what cause, " To think," said he, 



Of Us Death. 135 

"that I am going to be united with, my 
God." Then adding earnestly, " I desire to 
be dissolved, and to be with Christ. ' The 
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him 
that heareth say, Come. And he that 
thirsteth, let him come. Behold I come 
quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus ! ? " 

About noon he desired his window might 
be set open, that he might behold the bright- 
ness of the day ; which being done, he cried 
out, " O bright day of eternity ! How this 
sunshine cheers me, helping me to medi- 
tate on that day which shall never have 
night ! " 

As his sickness increased, he strove the 
more to unite himself to God by prayer, 
thus imitating his Master, who, in the depth 
of his agony, prayed the more earnestly. 
And when the violence of his disease so 
oppressed him that he had need of greater 
effort to keep his mind fixed upon God, he 
cried out, " Courage, courage ! Eternity is 
at hand." 



136 Monsieur Be Eenty. 

Many similar utterances fell from his lips 
with incredible fervor, though he could not 
pronounce them distinctly by reason of the 
extreme dryness of his throat, occasioned by 
the fever. At last, without speaking, he 
fixed his eyes steadfastly on heaven for at 
least a quarter of an hour together, with a 
heavenly smile, and full of reverence, as if 
he saw some extraordinary sight; after 
which, gathering all his strength, he sat up in 
his bed, took off his cap, and, holding it in 
his hand, said, with words half stifled in his 
throat, as well by the ardor of his spirit as 
the weakness of his body, " I adore you, I 
adore you ! " 

The curate — having used the service of 
the church, to which he attended with great 
devotion, answering to every prayer — asked 
him if he would not give a blessing to his 
children. He answered, " How so, good sir ? 
Shall I presume to give a blessing in your 
presence ? I should be happy to receive one 
from you." But being urged thereto, and 



Of his Death. 137 

told the church allowed it, he lifted up his 
hands and eyes to heaven, saying, — 

" May it please God to bless you and to 
preserve you by his grace from the malignity 
of the world, that you may have no part 
therein. ! And above all, my children, may 
you live in the fear and love of God, and 
yield due obedience to your mother ! " 

On Saturday, about half-past ten in the 
forenoon, having just recovered from a vio- 
lent convulsion, fixing his eyes on those pres- 
ent, he made signs with his hands, head, and 
eyes, for an intimate friend to come near him. 
Which being done, he said, — 

" Sir, I have one word to say to you before 
I die." Then, pausing a little to recover his 
strength, he testified his affection to him, but 
in words that could not distinctly be under- 
stood. Ax length, raising his voice, and 
speaking more distinctly, he said, " The per- 
fection of a Christian life is to be united to 
God by faith. Let us not entangle ourselves 
in novelties. Let us adore his conduct over 



138 Monsieur Da Benty. 

us, and continue faithful to him unto the end. 
Let us adhere to that one God, crucified for 
our salvation. Let us unite all our actions, 
and all that is in us, to his merits ; hoping, 
that, if we continue faithful to him, by his 
grace we shall be partakers of the glory of 
his Father. I hope we shall there see one 
another one day which shall never have an 
end." 

Some time after, raising his eyes to heaven, 
he said, " The holy Jesus, where is he ? " 
They brought him his picture, which he affec- 
tionately kissed. Then turning himself, he 
presently entered into his last agony, which 
lasted about a quarter of an hour, the greater 
part of which he spent in pronouncing the 
name of Jesus, making, as well as he could, 
acts of resignation, and commending his 
spirit to God. After which he expired 
sweetly, and his holy soul departed to its 
eternal rest. 

Thus lived and died M. De Renty, one of 
the most glorious lights with which God has 



Of his Death. 139 

favored his church in- any age. He died at 
Paris, April 24, 1649, in the thirty-seventh 
year of his age. We must admire, though 
we cannot explain, the secret designs of God, 
in taking out of the world, in the flower of 
his age, a man so well qualified to advance 
the honor of God and the good of his neigh- 
bor. This he has done in many instances 
in the history of his church. In this he is 
pleased to let us know that he hath no need 
of us for the advancing of his glory; and 
that, when he does use us as instruments 
therein, we ought to conduct ourselves with 
all humility in his presence. He translates 
us to another state, where we may glorify his 
majesty with greater perfection ; and where 
we may unite in loving God the Father,- 
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, to all 
eternity ! 




iiif m 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 446 994 5 




